In September 2018, more than 45 thousand French health students will be involved in the “sanitary service” (service sanitaire). This program has been launched by the French government in January 2018 and it concerns medical, dental, nursing, physiotherapy, and midwifery students; all other health students will be involved from 2019 on. The objective is to train them in prevention and health education, competencies that are now missing from most health training curricula, through the elaboration an implementation of a practical project to the benefit of the population.
The sanitary service responds to the first axe of the national health strategy 2018-2022, which is to develop a prevention and health promotion policy. Throughout three weeks, the students will be trained in public health, project management, prevention, health promotion and they will then have three weeks of hands-on experience in a interdisciplinary team. They will be supported by a pedagogic referent (référent pédagogique) from their university and a proximity referent (référent de proximité) from the structure where they will intervene. The places of intervention will mostly be middle and high schools, but also retirement houses and structures managed by social services.
The biggest challenge for universities, at one month from the beginning of the program, is to provide a quality training and support to the students, in order to respond to the expectations and needs of the structures where they will intervene, the population and the students themselves.
Sources (in French) :
- http://solidarites-sante.gouv.fr/actualites/presse/dossiers-de-presse/article/dossier-de-presse-le-service-sanitaire
- http://solidarites-sante.gouv.fr/systeme-de-sante-et-medico-social/strategie-nationale-de-sante/article/la-strategie-nationale-de-sante-2018-2022
- https://www.ars.sante.fr/le-service-sanitaire-des-etudiants-en-sante
- http://solidarites-sante.gouv.fr/actualites/presse/communiques-de-presse/article/priorite-prevention-le-service-sanitaire-pour-les-etudiants-en-sante-des-la
- http://solidarites-sante.gouv.fr/professionnels/se-former-s-installer-exercer/article/le-service-sanitaire
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Maria Francesca Manca
Public Health Resident, France