And the numbers confirm students’ enthusiasm for the project. For example, though working at the clinic is an elective, more than 80% of first-year medical students choose to be involved.
All first-year pharmacy students complete a one-week rotation at one of the four clinic locations. Beyond the required time, last year, 176 pharmacy students chose to volunteer at the clinic, equaling about 4,500 hours of volunteer service.
“We feel strongly that students shouldn’t just show up and expect they can help a community without first learning about the community,” said Michelle Johnson, MD, clinical professor of family medicine at UC San Diego School of Medicine and director of the Student-Run Free Clinic Project. “More than 300 medical students enroll per year in one of our elective courses, which cover topics such as health equity, working with interpreters, learning from the community, social services and working in a non-hierarchical transdisciplinary model.”
It’s not just medical and pharmacy students who volunteer at the Student-Run Free Clinic Project. Of the nearly 300 pre-health volunteers, more than 75% identify as underrepresented in medicine. Johnson notes that the hope is that those volunteers will be encouraged and motivated to move on to medical, pharmacy or dental school and other professional programs, which will improve diversity in the health care workforce.
The very heart of the Student-Run Free Clinic Project is providing humanistic and holistic care to those who would not otherwise have access to health care. The clinic provides medical and dental care for chronic issues, as well as support for conditions that can exacerbate those issues, such as food insecurity and mental health concerns.