Becoming a healthcare professional is a complex process, where learning occurs in various ways. This study explores an extracurricular learning approach, called the Social Health Bridge-Building Programme, designed to address health inequities. Student volunteers accompany persons in a socially vulnerable situation to healthcare appointments. Operating outside the realms of health education, the programme intends to provide an alternative road to training healthcare students to become capable of engaging with diverse populations, and reducing barriers to healthcare access. Based on an ethnographic fieldwork, using interviews and participant observation ("walking along") as methods, the aim of the study was to explore the learning processes and learning outcomes associated with bridge-building, as experienced by students. Our findings show that this extracurricular learning complemented the formal curriculum, and bridged the gap from theoretical knowledge to practice and to real persons, preparing students for their future roles. The particular positioning of walking alongside or sitting beside persons made the invisible visible, enabling student volunteers to see the variety of persons in need of bridge-building, ways of living in a socially vulnerable situation, inequity in health, and see the persons, beyond initial impression, fostering a deeper understanding and empathy among the students. Learning outcomes included communicational, relational, and observations skills, and a more comprehensive grasp of the healthcare system's complexity. We conclude that a non-governmental organization, independent of the healthcare system, may have found a novel way of providing extracurricular learning about health inequity to students. Demonstrating how the Social Health Bridge-Building Programme complements formal curricula, the concept could be applicable in other settings.

中文翻译：

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看到看不见的东西：学生志愿者陪同社会弱势群体去医疗保健预约所经历的课外学习过程和学习成果——一项人种学研究。

成为一名医疗保健专业人员是一个复杂的过程，学习可以通过多种方式进行。这项研究探索了一种名为“社会健康桥梁建设计划”的课外学习方法，旨在解决健康不平等问题。学生志愿者陪同处于社会弱势地位的人进行医疗预约。该计划在健康教育领域之外运作，旨在提供另一种途径来培训医疗保健学生，使其能够与不同人群接触，并减少获得医疗保健的障碍。该研究以人种学实地调查为基础，采用访谈和参与观察（“行走”）为方法，旨在探索学生所经历的与搭建桥梁相关的学习过程和学习成果。我们的研究结果表明，这种课外学习补充了正规课程，并弥合了理论知识与实践和真人之间的差距，为学生未来的角色做好了准备。与人并肩行走或坐在旁边的特殊位置使不可见的变得可见，使学生志愿者能够看到需要架起桥梁的各种人、社会弱势群体的生活方式、健康方面的不平等，并看到超越的人。初步印象，加深学生之间的理解和同理心。学习成果包括沟通、关系和观察技能，以及对医疗保健系统复杂性的更全面掌握。我们的结论是，独立于医疗保健系统的非政府组织可能已经找到了一种向学生提供有关健康不平等的课外学习的新方法。该概念展示了社会健康桥梁建设计划如何补充正式课程，可以适用于其他环境。