Navigating Ottawa Resources To improve Health: a virtual student-clinic pilot to strengthen social medicine education
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.36834/cmej.79674Abstract
Implication Statement
The practice of social medicine, which requires skills in interprofessional collaboration and navigating community resources, is crucial for training students to provide holistic care. We developed a social needs-based virtual student-run clinic called Navigating Ottawa Resources To improve Health (NORTH) to assist newcomers and underserved families with navigating community resources in Ottawa, Ontario. We found that pre-clerkship medical students improved their knowledge and comfort-level with addressing social needs while clients found the service helpful for accessing community support. NORTH is an effective learning opportunity for pre-clerkship medical students to practice social medicine and serve vulnerable communities that can be organized and operated in other communities.
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Copyright (c) 2025 Seung Heyck Lee, Aravinth Jebanesan, Katelyn Wang, Nicole Wisener, Emily Liang, Makenna Timm, Claire E Kendall, Susan Bennett
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