The Free Clinic is a source for Education & Training
When most people think about the Free Clinic of SW Washington, they picture a facility with dedicated volunteers caring for people with health problems. However, the Free Clinic is also an important source of education, training and experience for many of the volunteers who “work there”.
Often when a person is new to the job market, experience is required to secure a position or job. This is certainly true in the medical profession. New medical assistants and office workers receive training at school, but may find it difficult to break into the real job market without major experience.
The Free Clinic is a source of training to gain experience, hone skills and apply “book learning” for people of all education levels. Currently, the Free Clinic has five Partners in Careers’ (PIC) volunteers. These are individuals who need medical/dental office and patient communication experience. The Free Clinic provides the platform for this experience and training. A recent group of medical assistant graduates from Apollo and Everett Colleges have completed their training and are maintaining their skills at the Free Clinic while looking for full-time employment.
Four AmeriCorps volunteers are building their work experience at the Free Clinic. This program is a type of Peace Corps in the United States. The participants are usually new college graduates who are developing job skills in preparation for business, graduate school and often, medical or dental school.
A medical school graduate from Romania, Robert Klein, and a Cairo-trained doctor, Islam Elfaki, are shadowing volunteer physicians at the Free Clinic. This provides a unique international teaching opportunity for our volunteer physicians, most of whom enjoy the opportunity to teach. Agreeing to teach others the art of medicine is part of the Hippocratic Oath.
Seven Family Practice residents from Southwest Washington Medical Center and nurse practitioners from Washington State University rotate through the Free Clinic. Again, they work under the direction of the volunteer physicians and nurses.
Dental hygienist students and dental assistants train with volunteer dentists in the Free Clinic mobile dental van. Eight students from Pacific University Optometry programs and the Portland Community College Ophthalmic tech programs assist in the weekly vision clinic.
The Free Clinic provides excellent quality health care for patients in need AND it is also training the caring hands that will heal patients in the future.
