Evaluation of an Interprofessional Student Run Free Clinic

Nursing and Medical Students have been working together on a joint project for two years. These students came together to envision a free clinic that was completely interprofessional and managed by students. According to their mission statement, “ A founding principle of the clinic is centered on productive partnerships between medical and nursing students early in their clinical education, so that they will provide  a more comprehensive clinical care experience for patients, as well as unique clinical learning opportunities for students.” The students created a business plan and presented it to faculty at both schools as well as at the local free clinic.  Much work was done in order to clarify the roles of the current free clinic, and the faculty of the two schools as well as the roles of the student participants, and the types of concerns that could be addressed in a one day a week clinic.  Several pilot events occurred and the clinic is running every other Saturday using volunteer NP and MD faculty to precept as the students run the entire clinic. The patients are seen by student teams consisting of one medical student and one nursing student. There is one senior clinician (NP student or senior medical student) and one junior clinician (pre-licensure nursing student or first or second year medical student) on each team. They present to the volunteer faculty together and all three come up with a plan.

In addition to providing care and recording patient demographics and satisfaction, they are doing extensive evaluation of interprofessional experiences and lessons learned. Revisions to the orientation education of the students who participate are related to the results of this evaluation.  The students have gotten some grant funding to develop the orientation materials and have done fund raising events to assist with the clinic expenses.

This presentation will discuss the organization of the clinic, the interprofessional activities that have occurred and the evaluation data that has been collected.  The presentation will also share ideas for others who might wish to replicate the clinic model, and share the strengths of having students  run an interprofessional clinic.