SINGAPORE - Osteoarthritis, dementia and hypertension are among the topics that medical undergraduates from the National University of Singapore (NUS) speak about at various SingHealth Polyclinics, as part of their two-week clerkship.

Organised by SingHealth Polyclinics (SHP), the third-year students from NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine are trained to deliver public health talks at the polyclinics as part of their family medicine component.

Every academic year since 2012, family physicians from SHP take five cohorts of 30 students under their wing and train them to not only recognise relevant public health topics, but to also deliver them to the public competently.

Ms Goh Yue Shan, a third-year student from NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, was part of a team that conducted a public health talk at Geylang Polyclinic on Tuesday (June 21).

"This training allows us to interact with patients on the ground level and see what their concerns are about," she said.

"We can spend a longer time focusing on educating the public on preventive measures."

The effectiveness of the programme was measured between 2012 and 2013 in a research paper by SHP, with 92 per cent of 120 medical students surveyed viewing the training as useful in their medical education, and 53 per cent of the audience finding the speakers to be knowledgeable.

General clerk Poay Geok Loh, 59, who was at the talk at Geylang Polyclinic on Tuesday, said: "I learnt about how to prevent bone injuries, and it helps me a lot in preparing for the future."