Medical Student involvement beyond shadowing

[neriticzone]

---

Members don't see this ad.

At my school, we are looking to involve medical students (pre-clerkship) in volunteer-type experiences within psychiatry to foster interest in the specialty beyond shadowing. Any of you all in academics have experience with something like a student-run psychiatry clinic? Google has shown me a few results, but I'm struggling to envision how this could work. Students take histories/perform physical exams/ddx/etc at our student-run IM/FM clinics regularly, but trying to replicate this for psych doesn't seem feasible to me given the longitudinal aspect of care. We also don't really get training in psych until later on in our pre-clerkship years.

Have any of you seen these kinds of programs work at your institutions?

 

[wolfvgang22]

I haven't, isn't this what clerkship is for? But anywho, a student could easily be trained to do screening, MMSE, BDIs, take vitals, etc.

 

[splik]

It is very doable and many places do have students involved in the free clinics providing mental health care as well as primary medical care. you will need to find an interested junior resident and faculty member in the psychiatry department to make this work and invest the time to make this a reality. you may need to apply for grants to get this up and running.