Is exposure to a student-run clinic associated with future primary care practice?

The number of student-run clinics has increased in recent years, but student outcomes from participation are largely unknown. This study explored whether or not there is an association between presence of a student-run clinic at a medical school and future practice of medical school graduates in a primary care specialty.

A 2005 survey of all student-run clinics associated with medical schools was supplemented by direct survey of schools missing from this dataset. We used multiple linear regression to test associations between presence of a student-run clinic and current primary care practice, using specialty designation in the American Medical Association Physician Masterfile and controlling for medical school confounders (urban versus rural, private versus public, and absence versus presence of family medicine department.)

In 2005, 72 medical schools had at least one student-run clinic, and 43 schools did not (93.5% response rate). After controlling for confounders, the correlation coefficient between presence of student run clinic in 2005 and current primary care practice is -0.0122.

We found no association between having a student-run clinic in 2005 at a medical school and proportion of its graduates who currently practice primary care. Since there are considerable limitations of an institution-based study, it may be useful to study specialty choice for individual students who participate in student-run clinics, given that prior research has shown longitudinal educational experience with underserved population is associated with increased likelihood of choosing primary care careers.