Student-Led Clinics in Aotearoa New Zealand: A Scoping Review with Stakeholder Consultation

BACKGROUND: Student-led clinics have gained increasing attention as a mechanism for students across various health professions to gain authentic interprofessional clinical placement experience during their educational programme. PURPOSE: This scoping review is designed to identify and describe experiences relating to student-led clinics in Aotearoa New Zealand. METHODS: The review involved five key steps: 1) identifying the research question; 2) identifying relevant studies; 3) study selection; 4) charting the data; and 5) collating, summarising and reporting the results. DISCUSSION: Student-led health clinics present invaluable educational opportunities for authentic collaborative practice and capacity to improve population health and well-being, especially in marginalised and disadvantaged communities. Clinic establishment and operation require consideration of a complex set of factors. CONCLUSION: Community consultation (including with Indigenous populations) should precede establishment of clinics. There is scope for more reporting and objective evaluation to ensure best practice is being determined, developed, and achieved.