The Effect of Volunteering at a Student-Run Free Healthcare Clinic on Medical Students' Self-Efficacy, Comfortableness, Attitude, and Interest in Working with the Underserved Population and Interest in Primary Care

Tran, Kelvin; Kovalskiy, Aleksandr; Desai, Anand; Imran, Amna; Ismail, Rahim; Hernandez, Caridad

doi:10.7759/cureus.1051

Cited by 13 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 2 publications

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“…Further, understanding medical student experience at SRFCs is important in encouraging students to go on to work with vulnerable populations as physicians. Similar to other studies evaluating student experience, our findings demonstrate that volunteering at SRFCs does not impact student desire to work in primary care or underserved settings in the future [16,17]. Medical students choose to volunteer at SHAWCO in addition to their core curricular activities and are not required to participate.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 78%

An Evaluation of Patient and Student Experience at a Longstanding Student-run Free Clinic in Cape Town, South Africa

Heller

Thomas

Peters

et al. 2019

Cureus

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Background Student-run free clinics (SRFCs) combine medical student learning with the provision of free health care. A comprehensive evaluation of patient experience at SRFCs is needed to ensure a balance between valuable clinical experience for students and enhancement of patient care. The aim of this study was to describe patient and medical student perception of care at a longstanding SRFC at the University of Cape Town (UCT). Methods We conducted an observational study at the Students' Health and Welfare Centres Organisation (SHAWCO), a student-run free clinic at UCT. Trained study staff observed clinical encounters between consenting medical students and patients. We surveyed patients on their demographic characteristics, overall satisfaction, and impressions of medical students and physicians at SHAWCO. We surveyed medical students on their level of training, motivation for volunteering, and future career plans. We linked all data from each clinical encounter by a study-generated identification number. Results We surveyed a total of 34 patients and 52 medical students on their experience at SHAWCO. All patients either strongly agreed (88%) or agreed (12%) that they were satisfied with care. Patient satisfaction did not vary with the parameters of care included in multivariable analysis. Patients rated medical students higher than physicians on listening skills, and equally to physicians on all other clinical skills rated. Medical students reported a strong desire to go into primary care and work in underserved settings both before and after volunteering at SHAWCO. Discussion We found a high level of patient satisfaction at SHAWCO, consistent with other studies. Our findings indicate that medical student involvement in care at SRFCs is not a detriment to patient satisfaction.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 78%

An Evaluation of Patient and Student Experience at a Longstanding Student-run Free Clinic in Cape Town, South Africa

Heller

Thomas

Peters

et al. 2019

Cureus

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“…A total of 24 articles assessed the effectiveness of educational interventions [ 20 , 21 , 31 , 36 , 37 , 39 , 41 , 46 – 48 , 50 , 51 , 53 , 55 , 58 , 60 , 61 , 65 , 69 , 70 , 72 , 75 – 77 ]. Twenty were US studies.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Thirteen were controlled-group studies [ 20 , 21 , 36 , 37 , 46 , 47 , 49 , 50 , 60 , 61 , 59 , 70 , 72 ], among which two were randomized [ 46 , 60 ]. Five main types of educational interventions were evaluated: global curriculum dedicated to social accountability [ 20 , 21 , 36 , 46 , 47 , 48 , 50 , 51 , 53 , 60 , 61 , 72 , 77 ]; experiential community-based learning [ 37 , 41 , 70 ]; volunteering in student-run free clinics [ 55 , 58 , 69 , 76 ], traditional didactic learning ,, [ 31 , 39 , 65 ] and online curriculum [ 75 ]. Experiential community-based learning and global curricula showed the greatest positive impact on MS-ATU, whereas volunteering in student-run free clinics and traditional learning showed inconsistent results.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Medical students attitudes toward and intention to work with the underserved: a systematic review and meta-analysis

et al. 2021

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Background Experts in the field of medical education emphasized the need for curricula that improve students’ attitudes toward the underserved. However, some studies have shown that medical education tends to worsen these attitudes in students. We aimed at systematically reviewing the literature assessing the change in medical students’ attitudes toward the underserved and intention to work with the underserved throughout medical education, the sociodemographic and educational factors associated with favorable medical student attitudes toward and/or intention to work with the underserved and the effectiveness of educational interventions to improve medical student attitudes toward and/or intention to work with the underserved. Method We conducted a systematic review on MEDLINE, Scopus, and Web of Science databases. Three investigators independently conducted the electronic search. We assessed the change in medical students attitudes toward the underserved by computing a weighted mean effect size of studies reporting scores from validated scales. The research team performed a meta-analysis for the sociodemographic and educational factors associated with medical students attitudes toward and/or intention to work with the underserved. Results Fifty-five articles met the inclusion criteria, including a total of 109,647 medical students. The average response rate was 73.2%. Most of the studies were performed in the USA (n = 45). We observed a significant decline of medical students attitudes toward the underserved throughout medical education, in both US and non-US studies. A moderate effect size was observed between the first and fourth years (d = 0.51). Higher favorable medical students attitudes toward or intention to work with the underserved were significantly associated with female gender, being from an underserved community or ethnic minority, exposure to the underserved during medical education and intent to practice in primary care. Regarding educational interventions, the effectiveness of experiential community-based learning and curricula dedicated to social accountability showed the most positive outcome. Conclusions Medical students attitudes toward the underserved decline throughout medical education. Educational interventions dedicated to improving the attitudes or intentions of medical students show encouraging but mixed results. The generalizability of our results is impeded by the high number of studies from the global-North included in the review.

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“…Providing a positive educational environment where students can interact with patients may help them develop more positive attitudes toward patients with special needs. [1011] A study conducted by Dao et al . [12] found that more the education, dentists had received about providing care for patients with special needs, the better their attitudes and the more likely they were to provide services for these patients.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Attitudes and practices of dental students in providing oral health-care services to underserved rural patients attending dental institutions of Telangana, India

Dande¹,

Gone

Saikrishna

et al. 2019

J Pharm Bioall Sci

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Introduction: Attitude is a relatively enduring organization of beliefs around an object, subject, or concept, which predisposes one to respond in some preferential manner. It decides one’s action. Dental students frequently come across underserved rural population and must have good attitudes toward them, so that the care delivered to them will be optimum. Aim: To assess the attitudes and practices of dental students in providing oral health-care services to underserved rural patients. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among final-year Bachelor of Dental Surgery (BDS) students, interns, and postgraduate students who are involved in providing dental care in dental institutions of Telangana State, India. A 15-item, self-structured, pretested questionnaire was administered. Descriptive statistics were calculated using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) software, version 20.0. Attitudes and practices of undergraduates and postgraduates were compared using paired t -test. Results: A total of 574 students participated in the study. Approximately 73.3% of the dental students agreed that they personally want to be involved in providing oral health care for the underserved and 27.1% students disagreed that underserved patients are subjects on whom they can train and expertise. Approximately 56.62% of dental students often asked patients about the expenses they bear for attending a single dental visit and 53.48% tried to minimize the number of appointments required for the patients. No significant difference was observed in attitudes between undergraduates and postgraduates. Conclusion: Dental students had moderate attitude toward underserved patients but this was not reflected in their practices.

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The Effect of Volunteering at a Student-Run Free Healthcare Clinic on Medical Students' Self-Efficacy, Comfortableness, Attitude, and Interest in Working with the Underserved Population and Interest in Primary Care

Cited by 13 publications

References 2 publications

An Evaluation of Patient and Student Experience at a Longstanding Student-run Free Clinic in Cape Town, South Africa

An Evaluation of Patient and Student Experience at a Longstanding Student-run Free Clinic in Cape Town, South Africa

Medical students attitudes toward and intention to work with the underserved: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Attitudes and practices of dental students in providing oral health-care services to underserved rural patients attending dental institutions of Telangana, India

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