Earlier this month, a few WCCC Members attended the New York Student Run Free Clinic conference at the Ichan School of Medicine. A yearly event, this conference aims to bring together student leadership of the student run free-clinics in the city, providing a forum to learn from experts in the field, communicate research findings, and discuss pertinent healthcare issues. This year, Junior board members Nicky Blobel and Annie Yau were both able to attend for the first time. As a first year medical student, Annie is new to the board and thought that the conference was a great way to “learn more about other NYC student run clinics, share ideas, and absorb information”. Through the breakout sessions, Annie was able to gain an appreciation for different care models use by other student run free clinics in the city and thinks that the conference allowed her to reflect on how the WCCC could incorporate some of these changes.
First year Nicky Blobel also believed the conference allowed him to critically consider the services provided by the WCCC and ways to further improve care. As the Physician Recruitment Coordinator, Nicky is particularly interested in how we can continue to improve access to care from a provider side. Attending this conference allowed him to engage in small group discussions that help him reflect on immediate ways to continue to improve the WCCC. While the WCCC recently added a dietician counseling service, Nicky believes that “it would be useful to expand on this and provide information on nutrition to all of our patients in the form of an educational pamphlet, or even mobile phone application”.
Both Nicky and Annie enjoyed connecting to other medical students through the sharing of ideas, difficulties, and plans for future. Spending an afternoon learning from others who are passionate about providing access to the underserved populations of New York gave Annie “an incredible appreciation for what an amazing job the WCCC directors do to support the clinic” both in “delivering robust patient care but also in looking long-term to the future”.