Student-Led Mobile Health Clinic: Patients Served and Learning Experience

Abstract

Purpose Community medicine curriculum prepares physician assistant (PA) students to provide services to vulnerable and underserved populations. This article describes a service-learning model that uses a mobile health clinic (MHC) experience as part of the community medicine rotation. It provides an overview of the clinic's operation, patient documentation and characteristics, and student learning experiences. Methods Students collected demographic information on patients who visited the MHC during January through December 2017. The students summarized patient demographics and reflected on their experiences in a report. Results Two main outcomes are discussed: characteristics of the MHC patients and student observations about their experiences. In 2017, 113 students rotated through the MHC and recorded 813 patient encounters. The largest proportions of patients reported living on the street or in a shelter (71%) and were older than 56 years (40%), males (74%), Caucasian (43%), single (65%), nonveterans (77%), and high school graduates (41%). The top 5 reasons for visits were preventive care, cognitive/functional impairment, cardiometabolic disorders, skin issues, and respiratory illness. The MHC experience and process of recording and analyzing demographic data contributed to students' data management and analytical skills. The students identified problems of recordkeeping and their implications for patient care, gained a greater understanding of medical needs and complexities of treating the homeless, and provided suggestions for improving quality and efficiency of care. Conclusions The MHC service-learning model provides diverse, meaningful experiences for students. Our findings benefit PA programs aiming to expand and strengthen their community medicine curriculum.

Service-Learning in Physician Assistant Education: A Scoping Review

“…A total of 10 articles were included in this scoping review after meeting the study inclusion criteria. 2,[8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16] Table 2 shows the characteristics of each study's SL project, including how many disciplines were involved in the project, the number of students, type of reflection, name of community partner, whether the objectives of the course were aligned with the SL activity, whether there was reciprocity between the students and the community partner interests, the length of the SL hands-on activity, the name of the course and if the course was taken for credit, the data evaluation method, and the outcome of the service-learning.…”

“…2,16 Data on reflections were collected either in a written format, 10,11,[13][14][15][16] orally, 12 or using both oral and written formats. 2,8,9 All studies reported improvements in student learning related to their objectives. However, information on how they assessed their results (their evaluation method) to show improvement was not available for 3 of the studies.…”

Understanding Student-Run Health Initiatives in the Context of Community-Based Services: A Concept Analysis and Proposed Definitions

“…1 , 39 , 45 , 74 , 103 Of the articles reviewed, 76.1% (n = 169) explicitly identified use of a static site where the initiative was situated in a physical location (eg, church, shelter, etc. ), 6.3% were mobile to serve clients in various places, 18 , 22 , 35 , 39 , 41 , 52 , 53 , 57 , 70 , 75 , 88 , 107 and other sites, such as immunization clinics, were identified as temporary. 54 , 56 , 76 Static locations were frequently associated with churches and religious organizations (eg, Salvation Army and North Dallas Shared Ministries) 29 , 39 , 43 , 45 , 52 , 53 , 61 , 65 , 70 , 71 but also with non-profit and non-government organizations, such as shelters, recovery centers, and other associations.…”

“…2,22,91,104 In many articles it was evident that some educational institutions or specific departments played a very active part in running and managing the student-run initiatives in conjunction with offering courses, creating clinical experiences or providing clinical placements. 1,34,41,44,56,57,75,95,[105][106][107] While educational preparation of students was noted as a motivation for this level of engagement by institutions, such as providing interprofessional education, practical experience, or exposure to specific populations, 6,29,35,43,85,89,102,107,108 community engagement, mandatory service learning, and provision of service to stakeholders, including the public, were also reported. 18,21,35,54,70,73,98 Active recruitment of students to programs or provision of innovative services, for example collaborative programs, were other motivations cited for educational institutions to formally be involved with student-run initiatives.…”

Understanding Dermatologic Concerns Among Persons Experiencing Homelessness: A Scoping Review and Discussion for Improved Delivery of Care

“…Dermatologic conditions were one of the major physical health concerns among PEH. 10,13,15,49,54,57,80 According to all extracted studies, the prevalence of skin conditions ranged from 16.6% to 53.5%. 10,11,15,25,57,64,80 Several studies described statistically significant higher prevalence of dermatologic conditions among PEH compared to the general population.…”