Perceived Benefits of Free Clinic Participation on Clinical Education

Abstract

Background: Free clinics provide valuable services to underserved communities while offering medical students early clinical exposure. However, limited research exists evaluating the benefit of free clinic participation on clinical skill development from the student perspective. This study aims to assess medical students’ perceptions of how volunteering at a free clinic influences their clinical skill development.

Methods: A voluntary, anonymous survey was distributed to 68 medical students who had volunteered at St. Matthew’s Free Clinic within the past 18 months. The survey included 11 questions, including 7 Likert-scale items assessing perceived growth in clinical skills (e.g., patient history-taking, physical examination, blood glucose measurement, pharmacology knowledge, clinical note-taking, and overall skill development), as well as perceived coursework sacrifice and enjoyment. Thirty-eight students responded (55% response rate). Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics and ordinal logistic regression.

Results: Volunteers overwhelmingly felt that their free clinic experience contributed positively to the development of their clinical skills. Notably, the difference in ratings between school years for "clinical note taking" was statistically significant, with second-year students scoring higher (9.50 ± 0.86) compared to third- and fourth-year students (7.73 ± 1.75, p = 0.0007).

Conclusion: Medical students perceive free clinic participation as beneficial to clinical skill development. Embedding free clinic experiences into the curriculum could strengthen students' foundation of clinical skills prior to their years of clinical training.