Expanding Interprofessional Care and Leadership in Student Run Clinics

The Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) Student Run Health Clinic (SRHC) provides a rich environment to optimize interprofessional clinical learning environments while addressing the needs of an underserved community. This clinic provides students from different health professions the opportunity practice and learn together on interprofessional student teams both in caring for patients in a clinic and in the community and in leading a mini-health care organization. The SRHC started at CWRU as an interprofessional venture between medical and nursing students in 2011. The structure of the clinic, designed by the students require all teams to be interprofessional in the clinic, in leadership, and during outreach activities. Over the past eight years additional health professions have joined the clinic to provide care and take on leadership roles. The SRHC now includes social work and physician assistant students and is working to integrate dental medicine students in the future. The incorporation of additional health professions students has created opportunities to improve care for patients and the learning experience for the students. This presentation will review the processes, successes, and challenges faced by the students and faculty advisers while working to integrate more students into the SRHC. The CWRU SRHC was made possible by funding from the Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation and the KeyBank Foundation.