Volunteer

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Our clinic relies on volunteers from different health care disciplines, including medicine, pharmacy, dentistry, and physical/occupational therapy, at different levels in their training to run efficiently every Sunday. We need your help and so do our patients!

What Students Said: In general, some of the skills that you can expand upon and develop while volunteering at Sojourners are: learning how to take ownership of patients, practice with writing prescriptions, improving physical exam and vital taking skills, phlebotomy, managing patients’ social issues, and critical thinking.

Learn more about what each of our volunteers do each week and see how you can be a part of the Sojourner Health Clinic:

Triage

All Medical Students and Physician Assistant Students

  • Collect the chief complaint from the patient
  • Take vital signs of each incoming patient
    • This includes blood pressure, heart rate/pulse, respiratory rate, oxygen saturation, temperature, and height/weight
  • The clinic manager will do orientation for new volunteers, ensuring that triage is operating smoothly.

There is an annual orientation and Triage Training session for new volunteers!

Seeing Patients

Medical Students (MS3+, MD1+) and Physician Assistant Students (PA2+) seeing patients without supervision in clinic

  • These students complete the history and physical exam on the patient
  • Develop an assessment and plan for the patient
  • Present the patient to attending physician
  • Accompany the physician as they see the patient
  • Order any needed blood tests for periodic screening of chronic illnesses
  • Write down any medications that will be dispensed to the patient

Physician Assistant

All PA Students

  • Roles for PA students change based on year in the program:
    • Year 1 PA students begin in triage and transition to other rules including seeing patients and dispensary
    • Year 2 PA students can work anywhere in clinic (laboratory included, provided they have been lab trained within the last year)

Laboratory

All Medical Students and Physican Assistant Students after successful completion of laboratory training with the Lab Director & Lab Managers

  • In charge of setting up the lab station
    • Have all lab and blood draw materials ready for the day
    • Ensure quality control is performed each clinic
  • Make sure all supplies are not expired and in order
  • Run HIV screening tests on all new patients
  • Conduct all blood draws and lab work for patients that day
  • The laboratory director and managers will ensure that lab volunteers are operating the laboratory smoothly and know what needs to be done.

Our point of care lab has capabilities to run lipid panels, basic metabolic panels, hemoglobin a1c, ELISA HIV, Flu A/B, Strep A, urine analysis, and glucose.

Learn more about the laboratory at our Laboratory Training meeting!

Dispensary

All Pharmacy Students and Medical Students (MS4+, MD2+) [successful completion of Pharmacology preferred*] and Physician Assistant Students (PA2+)

  • Fill prescriptions for patients and create a prescription label
  • Log information regarding which medications were dispensed and amount dispensed
  • Record which lot number the meds came from
    • This is done so they know which patients to notify if there is a recall of a certain medication

The patient education program is currently being established. Under the supervision of pharmacy faculty/preceptors, pharmacy students and upper level medical students provide patient counseling on medications and medical devices.

Please visit the clinic’s Dispensary page for more information on our formulary and a guide on how to operate the dispensary during clinic.

*If an MS4 student has not completed pharmacology, they can still sign up for dispensary, but are only allowed to count medications and create labels with supervision

Patient Assistance Program

All Medical Students after successful completion of PAP training with the PAP Director

  • Complete paperwork for patients eligible to receive three free inhalers (Asmanex, Dulera, and Proventil) through Merck & Co.
  • Provide patients with their inhaler refills on a weekly basis
  • Log information about the patients, medications received, and medications given
  • Educate patients and clinic staff about the medications offered

Learn more about the patient assistance program at our PAP Training meeting!

Attending Physician

Family Medicine Faculty Physicians Only

The physician is responsible for the supervision of all students and patient care. They teach the students and give feedback on how to improve patient care and the clinic overall. In addition to the Clinic Manager, they are available to the students when questions arise.