Medical student volunteerism and interest in working with underserved and vulnerable populations
Abstract Background The desire of medical students to eventually work with underserved and vulnerable populations (hereafter ‘service interest’), has been shown to be shaped by individual factors including job satisfaction and financial considerations. School-level factors such as required longitudi...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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BMC
2020-04-01
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| Series: | BMC Medical Education |
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| Online Access: | http://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s12909-020-02048-x |
| _version_ | 1818455349699543040 |
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| author | Anna Joy G. Rogers |
| author_facet | Anna Joy G. Rogers |
| author_sort | Anna Joy G. Rogers |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract Background The desire of medical students to eventually work with underserved and vulnerable populations (hereafter ‘service interest’), has been shown to be shaped by individual factors including job satisfaction and financial considerations. School-level factors such as required longitudinal primary care experiences and the availability of extracurricular opportunities to work with underserved patients also affect service interest, but little is known about the impact of student volunteer activities. Methods This cross-sectional study gathered data from preclinical medical students via an online questionnaire. The data were linked to academic records, deidentified, and analysed using an ordinal logistic regression model with interest in caring ‘primarily for underserved or vulnerable populations’ as the outcome variable. Results Of 121 respondents (33% response rate), 24.8% expressed a definite interest, 55.3% expressed possible interest, and 19.9% expressed no service interest. Intent to work with the underserved was not related to age, sex, race/ethnicity, being from a rural hometown, academic qualifications prior to medical school, or anticipated debt at medical school graduation. Students with no service interest had a higher average academic performance in medical school and plans of subspecialising. When considering volunteerism prior to medical school, students in the highest and middle volunteerism tertiles had 5.68 (95% CI: 1.63, 19.81) and 4.34 (1.32, 14.32) times the odds, respectively, of having definite or possible service interest relative to those who were in the lowest volunteerism tertile, after adjusting for potential confounders. Volunteerism in a student-run clinic for the underserved during medical school was not correlated with service interest. Conclusions Medical schools looking to enroll more students interested in working with underserved or vulnerable populations may choose to emphasise applicant premedical volunteerism record in their admissions decisions. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-14T22:09:22Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-d1b5b6401a844c78bdfc02aa196db6ed |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1472-6920 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-14T22:09:22Z |
| publishDate | 2020-04-01 |
| publisher | BMC |
| record_format | Article |
| series | BMC Medical Education |
| spelling | doaj.art-d1b5b6401a844c78bdfc02aa196db6ed2022-12-21T22:45:48ZengBMCBMC Medical Education1472-69202020-04-012011610.1186/s12909-020-02048-xMedical student volunteerism and interest in working with underserved and vulnerable populationsAnna Joy G. Rogers0College of Medicine, University of Tennessee Health Science CenterAbstract Background The desire of medical students to eventually work with underserved and vulnerable populations (hereafter ‘service interest’), has been shown to be shaped by individual factors including job satisfaction and financial considerations. School-level factors such as required longitudinal primary care experiences and the availability of extracurricular opportunities to work with underserved patients also affect service interest, but little is known about the impact of student volunteer activities. Methods This cross-sectional study gathered data from preclinical medical students via an online questionnaire. The data were linked to academic records, deidentified, and analysed using an ordinal logistic regression model with interest in caring ‘primarily for underserved or vulnerable populations’ as the outcome variable. Results Of 121 respondents (33% response rate), 24.8% expressed a definite interest, 55.3% expressed possible interest, and 19.9% expressed no service interest. Intent to work with the underserved was not related to age, sex, race/ethnicity, being from a rural hometown, academic qualifications prior to medical school, or anticipated debt at medical school graduation. Students with no service interest had a higher average academic performance in medical school and plans of subspecialising. When considering volunteerism prior to medical school, students in the highest and middle volunteerism tertiles had 5.68 (95% CI: 1.63, 19.81) and 4.34 (1.32, 14.32) times the odds, respectively, of having definite or possible service interest relative to those who were in the lowest volunteerism tertile, after adjusting for potential confounders. Volunteerism in a student-run clinic for the underserved during medical school was not correlated with service interest. Conclusions Medical schools looking to enroll more students interested in working with underserved or vulnerable populations may choose to emphasise applicant premedical volunteerism record in their admissions decisions.http://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s12909-020-02048-xMedical educationUnderserved populationsVolunteerismOrdinal logistic regression |
| spellingShingle | Anna Joy G. Rogers Medical student volunteerism and interest in working with underserved and vulnerable populations BMC Medical Education Medical education Underserved populations Volunteerism Ordinal logistic regression |
| title | Medical student volunteerism and interest in working with underserved and vulnerable populations |
| title_full | Medical student volunteerism and interest in working with underserved and vulnerable populations |
| title_fullStr | Medical student volunteerism and interest in working with underserved and vulnerable populations |
| title_full_unstemmed | Medical student volunteerism and interest in working with underserved and vulnerable populations |
| title_short | Medical student volunteerism and interest in working with underserved and vulnerable populations |
| title_sort | medical student volunteerism and interest in working with underserved and vulnerable populations |
| topic | Medical education Underserved populations Volunteerism Ordinal logistic regression |
| url | http://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s12909-020-02048-x |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT annajoygrogers medicalstudentvolunteerismandinterestinworkingwithunderservedandvulnerablepopulations |