Developing a Medical Student Service Learning Program: Mammography Screening Assistance
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The Linda Fenner Mobile 3D Mammography Center (LFMMC) has been an essential part of Florida International University’s Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine (HWCOM) community outreach to underserved women. It has provided free mammography screening, health education, and navigation services to uninsured women in Miami-Dade County since its inception in 2014. In 2021, the Clinical Mammography Art Initiative (CMAI), a student group at HWCOM, created a service-learning program that has allowed medical students to volunteer on the LFMMC and directly assist uninsured women across the community in receiving free mammography screenings. Students who volunteer are asked to complete a survey that allows for reflection on their experience on the LFMMC. Students reported learning how: to take a breast health history, a mammography machine works and, to overcome language barriers especially when discussing sensitive health information. Volunteering on the LFMMC affords HWCOM students the ability to apply what they have learned in their preclinical courses, provides an opportunity to understand the process women navigate to receive a mammogram, and encourages creative thinking on ways to assist underserved women in the community
Author(s):
- Daniella Nunez, BS, Medical Student, FIU HWCOM
- Seema Azim Al-Shaikhli, BS, Medical Student, FIU HWCOM
