Integration of academic learning and service development through guided projects for rural practitioners in India.

Background: Christian Medical College Vellore (CMC) aspired through its Fellowship in Secondary Hospital Medicine (FSHM), a 1-year distance-learning program, to integrate academic learning and service development through guided projects for junior doctors working in small rural hospitals.

Aim: The purpose of this article is to report the evaluation of the effectiveness of the project work in the FSHM program.

Method: Mixed method evaluation was done using focus group discussion with students, written surveys for students and faculty, and telephone interviews with students and medical superintendents. Evidence for validity was gathered for the written survey. Criteria for trustworthiness were applied for the qualitative data analysis.

Results: The major strengths of the project work identified were that students became aware of local health problems and how to deal with them, learned to work as a team, and had a sense of doing something useful. Recommendations for improvement were to have more interactions between guides and students. The benefits of projects to the hospital were providing improved clinical care, improved health systems, cost effective care management and benefits to the community.

Conclusions: Service learning through guided project work should be incorporated into distance-learning educational programs for junior doctors working in rural hospitals.