Creighton students to serve patients, gain clinical experience at new clinic
Creighton University health sciences students in Phoenix will serve uninsured and underserved patients while gaining hands-on clinical experience at St. Vincent de Paul’s new East Valley Medical Clinic, which opened Wednesday in Mesa, Arizona.
The new clinic continues a longstanding partnership between Creighton and St. Vincent de Paul that provides students opportunities to learn alongside faculty and volunteer healthcare professionals while helping care for uninsured and underserved patients.
“Future healthcare professionals become more skilled and compassionate by serving neighbors who face significant barriers to improving their health,” said the Rev. Daniel S. Hendrickson, SJ, PhD, president of Creighton University. “These hands-on clinical experiences embody Creighton’s mission by teaching students that healing extends beyond medicine. They learn to see every patient as a whole person and to treat every individual with dignity throughout their careers.”
Creighton faculty and medical students have volunteered with St. Vincent de Paul in Phoenix for over a decade. The partnership grew with the opening of Creighton University Health Sciences Campus - Phoenix in 2021, when St. Vincent de Paul’s Virginia G. Piper Medical Clinic became a primary teaching site for first- and second-year medical students.
Since then, 680 Creighton medical students have participated in patient care at the clinic. 120 first- and second-year medical students serve there each year, generally spending one day a month working alongside faculty and volunteer clinicians. About 15 third-year medical students and 12 physician assistant students also participate annually, along with students from Creighton’s other health sciences programs.
“Our new East Valley Medical Clinic means more availability, greater access to care, and more lives returned to health for a patient population that often has to put family bills, groceries, gas, childcare and more before caring for themselves,” said Shannon Clancy, St. Vincent de Paul’s Rob and Melani Walton Endowed CEO. “With the help of our community partners, we are so grateful that we can say ‘yes’ more often now and provide hardworking members of our community with the care they need to thrive.”
The East Valley Medical Clinic, which is approximately twice the size of St. Vincent de Paul’s main campus clinic in Phoenix, includes 18 exam rooms, two procedure rooms, a laboratory and a medication dispensary. Creighton joins St. Vincent de Paul, ASU Health and Mayo Clinic as partners at the facility, which offers comprehensive primary care and will provide access to more than 30 medical specialties as its volunteer medical presence grows. Patients will be seen by referral and through eligibility screening for qualified community members.
For Creighton students, the new clinic provides another setting to develop their clinical skills while putting their education into practice in service to the Phoenix community.
