The Journey of an Interprofessional Diabetes Education Student-Run Free Clinic: Where Do We Go from Here?

Future health professionals must be able to function well in a dynamic team-based environment. Interprofessional education aims to enable health professional students to collaborate on teams while working toward common goals. The Diabetes Education Wellness (DEW) Clinic was established in 2011 as an interprofessional, student-run, free clinic to educate the underserved in the community about the risks and management of diabetes. Twenty-four staff and students participated in a focus group addressing perspectives and attitudes toward interprofessional education and improvements for the clinic. A grounded theory approach was used to analyze the data to identify emerging themes. Five themes emerged: 1) interprofessional collaboration allows for exposure to other professional roles specific to diabetes, 2) the interprofessional clinic provides students with a practical application in a real-life context, 3) interprofessional experiential collaboration provides exposure to other resources allowing for a more comprehensive approach to treating patients, 4) integrated team tables with complementary disciplines provide the best patient outcomes, and 5) the need for "mock clinic" format for orientation. Participants in the study indicated that interprofessional collaboration was beneficial. The clinic provided students with invaluable first-hand experiences serving individuals with type-2 diabetes, learning alongside healthcare workers, and taking the lead at problem-solving.