The Free Clinic as a Service Learning Opportunity

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Community service learning has been identified as a recommendation for all health professions schools in the final report of the Pew Health Professions Commission. The Commission encourages students to share their professional resources for the improved health of the community.1 This opportunity for service learning arose from a "road trip" by the baccalaureate nursing faculty to the Good Samaritan Clinic. The Good Samaritan Clinic opened 2 months earlier with the mission to provide free or low-cost care and referral to uninsured and underinsured residents of the county. The uninsured population in this geographic area includes the working poor (20-65 years old), who have many chronic, sometimes undiagnosed, health problems; this is precisely the population that had been an identified priority for clinical learning experiences Students spend 1 day at the Good Samaritan Clinic. Daytime activities include independently screening new patients, following up on lab work and other diagnostic tests from the previous week, or scheduling referral services for patients. At 5:00pm the students return to the clinic supervised by a faculty member to provide care as an integral member of the interdisciplinary team. For the next 4-5 hours, the students accompany a volunteer physician or nurse practitioner assisting with procedures and obtaining labwork as needed. Students also have an opportunity to teach those receiving care about the medications, diet, and/or treatments prescribed. Cultural diversity was an added benefit for student learning: nearly 20% of the clientele is Mexican, most of whom speak no English or very little English. Many students have the unique experience of eliciting health data via an interpreter or, occasionally, by using a Spanish-English translation guide. In this setting, the caring focus of nursing reemerges from a healthcare climate that is too often complicated by cost constraints and regulation. The team approach to high-quality care is unsurpassed. Most students relate that they are proud to know that such a service is available in this geographic area, and some have referred people encountered in other clinical experiences to the facility: "Service-learning experiences can be invaluable in helping students develop empathy, social awareness, and social and cultural competence. Faculty members should also demonstrate their professional commitment to the community, engaging in service-learning opportunities as models for their students."2 In many clinical experiences, nursing students are viewed less than positively because they take more time to complete activities and question nearly everything; however, those attributes are valued in this setting. Those seeking care appreciate that someone is taking time to listen to their concerns. The students are recognized as the professionals they are becoming. One student commented, "it was so different from working at a hospital where a lot of the workers are cranky and uncooperative all the time. All of the volunteers had a very positive attitude and enjoyed being there." A free clinic experience can operationalize the caring component of nursing for students and restore faith in healthcare providers and services among those already in practice. The experience can also serve as a stimulus for graduates of the nursing program to assume instrumental roles in developing similar clinics in their own geographic locale. The need for no-cost or low-cost healthcare exists in every community across the country with more than 40 million uninsured people today.3 Schools of nursing can begin to ease the national healthcare burden by investing faculty and student time and talent in free clinics such as the Good Samaritan Clinic. Yes, clinical learning objectives can be achieved in a free clinic, and volunteerism does have a place in a baccalaureate nursing curriculum.

This publication has 0 references indexed in Scilit: