Pipelines to Leadership: Strategies for Executive Board Recruitment at a Student-Run Free Clinic

Abstract

Introduction/Problem: The Covid-19 pandemic placed restrictions on student-run free clinics (SRFCs) across the nation. Guidelines set forth by our medical school’s administration restricted in-person participation at our SRFC from April 2020 to March 2021 for clinical students and April 2020 to September 2021 for pre-clinical students. With medical executive board elections occurring annually in October, it was uncertain whether eligible pre-clinical students would feel confident enough in their experience to run for and fulfill the responsibilities of a board position. In this paper, we will present leadership opportunities and strategies to recruit candidates for an executive board at an SRFC. Methods/Interventions: Additional volunteer positions, including a new Assistant Clinic Manager position, were added for pre-clinical students prior to the election. Members of the clinic’s established teams, such as the Continuity of Care Team, were encouraged to run in the election. An additional board position was transitioned to a two-year position. The current board members participated in a question and answer session about their positions and informally mentored interested candidates outside of this session. Candidates’ written platforms and volunteer sign-up records were analyzed to determine the impact of these interventions. Results: Twenty-seven candidates ran for 14 board positions up for election. Fifty-six percent of the candidates were pre-clinical students, of which 47% had the opportunity to serve in the Assistant Clinic Manager position. Eighty-five percent of candidates were members of one of the clinic’s teams, and 100% of the candidates elected had previously served on a team or as a board member, which are higher percentages than in previous years. Conclusion: Despite pre-clinical students eligible to run for a board position given the opportunity of only 7 clinic days over 2 months (with a limit of one general volunteer shift per month) to serve in-person, the election attracted a similar number of candidates as previous years. In addition, candidates’ motivation to improve upon things they had been involved with at the clinic, often beyond their responsibilities on clinic day, played a large role in the 2021 election. While a variety of methods can be used to motivate volunteers to pursue executive board positions, our work shows SRFCs can offer leadership positions outside of the executive board, possibly through clinic teams, to serve as a pipeline for volunteers to pursue increasing clinic ownership and responsibilities.