med schools & community

[nilla_wafer]

---

Members do not see this ad.

just curious..

what are ways in which your medical school serves the surrounding community? i.e. free clinics, medicine distribution programs, etc..

 

[zenith]

just curious..

what are ways in which your medical school serves the surrounding community? i.e. free clinics, medicine distribution programs, etc..

The faculty doesn't do diddly squat. But my med student club puts on lots of fundraising events for the local childrens hospital. We generate thousands of dollars per year.

 

[Gimlet]

MCW runs a free clinic for people without insurance every Saturday. It's staffed by med students and MCW faculty. It's actually really fun to work with your anatomy professor in a setting outside of the anatomy lab!

 

[nilla_wafer]

MCW runs a free clinic for people without insurance every Saturday. It's staffed by med students and MCW faculty. It's actually really fun to work with your anatomy professor in a setting outside of the anatomy lab!

wow, how does that work? I would love to have a student-run clinic here, but everytime I bring it up, there's always that darn liability question that I have no idea how to counter.

thanks for your responses so far..

 

[Llenroc]

The faculty doesn't do diddly squat. But my med student club puts on lots of fundraising events for the local childrens hospital. We generate thousands of dollars per year.

What exactly do you expect the faculty to do? These people have jobs which keeps them busy.

Once you're working, let's see how much charitable work you engage in.

 

[EMPOWERurSELF!]

Our school runs a Community Care Clinic every Tuesday evening and allows a handful of M1's through M4's to volunteer on a first come, first serve basis under the direction of a physician who volunteers their time. We have the chance to take histories, etc. and report back to the physician, who also sees each patient. It's a great resource for students and more importantly the community, and it has been utilized so much this past year that they are looking to add another night. Nilla_wafer, I wish I knew how the liability issue is tackled here but I have no idea how to help ya...

 

[nilla_wafer]

What exactly do you expect the faculty to do? These people have jobs which keeps them busy.

Once you're working, let's see how much charitable work you engage in.

llenroc,
students have studies that keep them busy. 😉

it's all matter of how much time you make for these things. fundraising sounds like a great service idea..

however, I guess I'm selfishly interested in developing my clinical skills, which is why the community clinic sounds the most appealing. but please, keep the ideas coming!! I'm trying to figure out what us poor underworked students at my med school can do (<-- sarcasm)

 

[Gimlet]

wow, how does that work? I would love to have a student-run clinic here, but everytime I bring it up, there's always that darn liability question that I have no idea how to counter.

thanks for your responses so far..

I have absolutely no idea how insurance/liability issues are taken care of with our free clinic. All I know is to show up when they tell me to and to document everything carefully. Charts are reviewed weekly by the student managers (usually M2's) of the clinic. I would assume that students who work at the clinic are covered in the same way that M3s and M4s who work in the hospitals are. I really have no idea, though. This would be a VERY tough thing to get off the ground if you have no existing free clinic...it would take at least a couple of years of planning.

 

[zenith]

What exactly do you expect the faculty to do? These people have jobs which keeps them busy.

Once you're working, let's see how much charitable work you engage in.

Obviously I can't answer this now, because I'm not working full time. What I can say is that I'm the student rep for my state's organisation for catholic doctors, and we have membership from interns, residents, registrars and fully fledged specialists. I have met many of these people who provide voluntary treatment on a weekly basis. Several of them volunteered their time to assist in the aftermath of the Boxing Day Tsunami. They were able to find time in their lives to do this.

Furthermore, I don't know what your medical school experience is like, but I can honestly say that mine requires a time commitment of a lot more than the standard 40 hour working week. I have 31 contact hours of lectures and labs, and I find I have to do about three to four hours of study a day to make the grade. I'm no Mother Theresa, but I find that along with most of my colleagues we make the time to participate in our student body's charity events. Your cynical comment is baseless.

 

[Pedonc]

We have a student run free clinic that is not officially affiliated with the medical center because they refused to get involved for liability reasons. Since our services are completely free, we are protected from liability by the "Good Samaritan" law. Our patients sign a statement acknowledging this every time they are seen.