The School Health Education Program (SHEP): medical students as health educators

The School Health Education Program (SHEP) is a collaboration of the John A. Burns School of Medicine and the State of Hawai'i Department of Education that was founded to improve the health of Hawai'i's youth. This program allows premedical and medical students (collectively referred to as "medical students" from here on) to serve as health educators for high school students in six priority areas of health education. To confirm the efficacy of this community health partnership program and to determine the factors resulting in its success. A total of 1714 students from seven of Hawai'i's public high schools were surveyed for improvement in their content knowledge and decision-making confidence after participating in SHEP presentations. A sub-group of 235 high school students were asked about their comfort level and trust in their interactions with medical students as compared to their health teachers. The knowledge content and confidence in decision making increased significantly after participation in SHEP activities (p