Practical Tips for Starting a Student-Run Free Eye Clinic

TL;DR

This paper offers 12 practical tips for students wanting to start a free eye clinic to help underserved communities and train future medical providers.

Contribution

The paper provides a student-developed framework for establishing a student-run free eye clinic.

Findings

Student-run free clinics can provide essential medical services to the uninsured and underserved.

Founding a clinic is challenging but achievable with the right guidance and support.

The tips are based on real-world experience from establishing the Bearcat Eye Service.

Abstract

Student-run free clinics serve three primary functions: 1) providing basic medical services for the uninsured and underserved in our communities, 2) supporting the training of medical providers, and 3) advocating for medically underserved communities. Despite the multiple benefits that student-run free clinics can provide, the process of founding a clinic is a significant challenge, even for highly motivated students.

Here, we present 12 tips generated by students and residents at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine based on their combined experience in founding the Bearcat Eye Service (BES), a clinic that provides basic ophthalmic screenings. These tips were developed to provide a framework for those interested in founding a student-run free clinic or expanding ophthalmic care in their communities.