Becoming a leader for underserved patients—the importance of student run free clinics
Many students enter medical school with aspirations of expanding healthcare to underserved communities and reducing healthcare access barriers; yet they lack the leadership skills to achieve this goal. This perspective discusses the role of student-run free clinics in developing medical students’ le...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2024-12-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Health Services |
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| Online Access: | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/frhs.2024.1509964/full |
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| author | Ann Marie Cheney Noah Baltrushes Daniel Gehlbach Armando Navarro |
| author_facet | Ann Marie Cheney Noah Baltrushes Daniel Gehlbach Armando Navarro |
| author_sort | Ann Marie Cheney |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Many students enter medical school with aspirations of expanding healthcare to underserved communities and reducing healthcare access barriers; yet they lack the leadership skills to achieve this goal. This perspective discusses the role of student-run free clinics in developing medical students’ leadership abilities—problem-solving, partnership building, planning, decision-making, and resource acquisition—to address the healthcare needs of marginalized patient populations. It also discusses how fostering leadership skills in the context of serving underserved patients also develops medical students’ structural competency and thus awareness of how inequities embedded within hierarchies and social institutions shape health outcomes. We use the example of the development of the Coachella Valley Free Clinic, a student-led and community engaged primary care clinic, to illustrate how student-run free clinics create opportunities for medical students to build leadership skills while addressing the healthcare needs of marginalized patient populations. Medical students, working alongside community health workers and federally qualified healthcare centers, devised a “pop-up” clinic model aimed at delivering care that is both culturally sensitive and linguistically appropriate, thereby addressing health disparities rooted in systemic inequality. As we argue, SRFCs create real-world settings where medical students can develop their leadership skills and understanding of inequities in health ultimately contributing to the broader goal of reducing health inequities by improving healthcare access for underserved patient populations. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-53349ae078b54048ab9e2614946acf8a |
| institution | OA Journals |
| issn | 2813-0146 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2024-12-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Health Services |
| spelling | doaj-art-53349ae078b54048ab9e2614946acf8a2025-08-20T02:37:06ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Health Services2813-01462024-12-01410.3389/frhs.2024.15099641509964Becoming a leader for underserved patients—the importance of student run free clinicsAnn Marie Cheney0Noah Baltrushes1Daniel Gehlbach2Armando Navarro3Department of Social Medicine Population and Public Health, University of California Riverside, School of Medicine, Riverside, CA, United StatesUndergraduate Medical Education, University of California Riverside, School of Medicine, Riverside, CA, United StatesFamily Medicine, University of California Los Angeles, School of Medicine, Los Angeles, CA, United StatesFamily & Community Medicine, University of California San Francisco, School of Medicine, San Francisco Angeles, CA, United StatesMany students enter medical school with aspirations of expanding healthcare to underserved communities and reducing healthcare access barriers; yet they lack the leadership skills to achieve this goal. This perspective discusses the role of student-run free clinics in developing medical students’ leadership abilities—problem-solving, partnership building, planning, decision-making, and resource acquisition—to address the healthcare needs of marginalized patient populations. It also discusses how fostering leadership skills in the context of serving underserved patients also develops medical students’ structural competency and thus awareness of how inequities embedded within hierarchies and social institutions shape health outcomes. We use the example of the development of the Coachella Valley Free Clinic, a student-led and community engaged primary care clinic, to illustrate how student-run free clinics create opportunities for medical students to build leadership skills while addressing the healthcare needs of marginalized patient populations. Medical students, working alongside community health workers and federally qualified healthcare centers, devised a “pop-up” clinic model aimed at delivering care that is both culturally sensitive and linguistically appropriate, thereby addressing health disparities rooted in systemic inequality. As we argue, SRFCs create real-world settings where medical students can develop their leadership skills and understanding of inequities in health ultimately contributing to the broader goal of reducing health inequities by improving healthcare access for underserved patient populations.https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/frhs.2024.1509964/fullstudent run free clincisunderserved patientsleadershipstructural inequitiesculturally competent care |
| spellingShingle | Ann Marie Cheney Noah Baltrushes Daniel Gehlbach Armando Navarro Becoming a leader for underserved patients—the importance of student run free clinics Frontiers in Health Services student run free clincis underserved patients leadership structural inequities culturally competent care |
| title | Becoming a leader for underserved patients—the importance of student run free clinics |
| title_full | Becoming a leader for underserved patients—the importance of student run free clinics |
| title_fullStr | Becoming a leader for underserved patients—the importance of student run free clinics |
| title_full_unstemmed | Becoming a leader for underserved patients—the importance of student run free clinics |
| title_short | Becoming a leader for underserved patients—the importance of student run free clinics |
| title_sort | becoming a leader for underserved patients the importance of student run free clinics |
| topic | student run free clincis underserved patients leadership structural inequities culturally competent care |
| url | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/frhs.2024.1509964/full |
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