Via Research Recognition Day Program VCOM-Carolinas 2025

Clinical Educational Research

Perceived Benefits of Free Clinic Participation on Clinical Education Annabel Crippen, OMS-III 1 , David Redden, PhD 2 , Lisa Carroll, MD 3 . 1. VCOM Carolinas, Spartanburg, SC. 2. VCOM Auburn, Biomedical affairs and research, Auburn, AL 3. VCOM Carolinas, Family Medicine, Clinical Affairs, Spartanburg, SC.

Discussion

Results

Introduction

Methods Individuals who have served the St. Matthew’s Free Clinic were provided with a voluntary survey asking them to quantify, through a rating scale, how the Free Clinic experience helped them to develop certain skills. The skills in question ranged from taking a patient's blood sugar level to managing patient treatment plans. The anonymous data was analyzed using statistical modeling to determine the perceived benefit of Free Clinic experience for clinical skill development. E umerous studies have shown the positive impact that Free Clinics have for both medical students and underserved populations. Medical students in San Diego overwhelmingly agreed that helping at a Free Clinic was a valuable educational experience and positively influenced their attitudes towards working with underserved patients (Smith, 2012). Currently, 57 million people live in areas designated as having a shortage of primary care (VanderWielen, 2015), Free Clinics help fill these gaps of healthcare while benefiting medical school curriculums. At VCOM-Carolinas, there are multiple Free Clinics, in which first- and second-year medical students can participate. The St. Matthew's Free Medical Clinic was created in a location to assist patients with transportation barriers. It is a full-service clinic that serves adult and children and runs simultaneously alongside the St. Matthew's Food Pantry. St. Matthew's Free Medical Clinic onboards a new roster of student volunteers each block of medical school and previous volunteers are placed as mentors to new volunteers. We aimed to assess St. Matthew's Free Clinic volunteers' perceptions regarding how their clinical skills changed and developed as a result of volunteering. By evaluating their perceptions, we can identify the benefits of the volunteer program and evaluate how to improve the experience.

- Volunteers overwhelmingly felt that St. Matthew's Free Clinic experience contributed positively to the development of their clinical skills. - The statistical significance of the benefit in growth of clinical note taking skills between years shows that OMS-IIs have fewer resources that benefit them in this area while OMS-IIIs have more resources once they are in clinical rotations. - Volunteering at St Matthew's Free Clinic's impact on students' knowledge of pharmacology was the lowest scoring skill. This may be because VCOM students have a dedicated class every academic block for pharmacology, providing more resources to develop their knowledge. - Students rated the amount of time they had to sacrifice from schoolwork in order to volunteer as a 4.21 out of 10 with 10 being “a large amount of time”. This shows that students view the time away from their studies as beneficial rather than a burden. - There not being a statistical difference number of shifts and level of benefit indicates any exposure is valued. Conclusions This result reflects how students value Free Clinic experiences to support their clinical skill growth and suggests that Free Clinic experience, embedded into a curriculum recurrently, could provide students with a solid foundation of skills prior to entering their years of clinical training.

Year ȋ ‡ ƒα” ʹ α͵ʹȌ ȋ ‡ƒα” ͳ αͷ ̵Ȍ͵ǦͶ̵ ’Ǧ˜ƒŽ—‡ ͺǤ͹Ͳ ά ͳǤͻ͸ ͹Ǥͻ͵ ά ͳǤͻͳ ͲǤͳͶ͵͹

Ͳ It was statistically significant that second year students felt that their experience improved their note taking skills more than third-year students. Ͳ The lowest ranked clinical skill was knowledge in pharmacology. Ͳ 57.89% of participants in the survey rated St. Matthew's Free Clinic experience as helping the most out of any resource to develop their clinical skills. Ͳ There was not a statistical difference in amount of benefit based on number of shifts

Variable

taking_blood_glucose ͻǤ͵Ͳ ά ͲǤͻ͵ ͺǤͺͲ ά ͳǤ͹Ͳ ͲǤ͸ʹ͹ͺ performing_physical_examination ͻǤͳ͵ ά ͳǤ͵ʹ ͺǤʹ͹ ά ͳǤͺ͵ ͲǤͳͶͲͳ knowledge_pharmacology ͹Ǥʹ͸ ά ʹǤͳͺ ͸Ǥ͸͹ ά ͳǤ͸͵ ͲǤ͵ͳͲͷ clinical_note_taking ͻǤͷͲ ά ͲǤͺ͸ ͹Ǥ͹͵ ά ͳǤ͹ͷ ͲǤͲͲͲ͹ overall_skills_development ͻǤͶͺ ά ͲǤͺͷ ͺǤ͸Ͳ ά ͳǤͷͷ ͲǤͲͺͷͶ sacrifice ͶǤ͵Ͳ ά ʹǤͲͺ ͶǤͲ͹ ά ʹǤͲͻ ͲǤ͹͵ͷ͵ enjoyed_volunteering ͻǤ͸ͷ ά ͲǤͺ͵ ͻǤͶͲ ά ͲǤͻͻ ͲǤʹͻ͸ͻ sum ͸͸͸ǤͷǤͲͻͳ ά ͸ͳǤͶ͹ ά ͹Ǥ͵Ͳ ͲǤͲʹͶͺ taking_patient_history

References

Modi, Anita et al. “Evaluating the Relationship Between Participation in Student 7ZS +WJJ (QNSNHX FSI (MFSLJX NS *RUFYM^ NS 2JIN cal Students.” /TZWSFQ TK UWNRFW^ HFWJ HTRRZSNY^ MJFQYM [TQ ITN Smith, Sunny D et al. “Medical student perceptions of the educational value of a student run free clinic.” +FRNQ^ RJINHNSJ [TQ ;FSIJW

2025 Research Recognition Day

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