Description

The second phase of the project involved the actual implementation of the winning business model and launch of the wellness clinic. It involved putting a combined Faculty of Business (FB) and Rehabilitation Sciences (RS) students group as the core management team of the clinic. The RS students designed the actual fall prevention programme under the guidance of an experienced physiotherapist. The FB students were engaged in the service operation of the clinic as well as well as marketing and outreach efforts. The student-run wellness clinic is modeled as a social enterprise. Success of the project in this phase was determined by how well the combined team were able to work together and their ability to raise awareness for their student-run clinic.

Evaluation

To date the clinic has been up and running less than a year and is continually providing preventive healthcare services to members of the community. The impact of its fall prevention education and programmes are summarized in the numbers below:

• 68% of individuals demonstrate significant improvement in the knowledge of fall prevention.
• 57% of the individuals are more confident about dealing with falls
• 38% of the individuals show physical improvement.

Although the impact of preventive healthcare is not easy to observe, the students have made every effort to track the effectiveness of the programme using a variety of physiotherapy tests and surveys. In the assessment of preventive healthcare, these key metrics represent a demonstrated improvement the physical ability to prevent falls and more importantly the nurturing of a positive attitude towards dealing with falls. The student-run wellness clinic has been publicized in the local newspapers and students have been praised by the community for their dedication.

The Wellness Clinic has created an excellent platform for our Faculty of Business students to learn and perform. The following three points summarize what students learn from the Wellness clinic:

Satisfying the needs of various stakeholders:

In running the Wellness Clinic, students face various needs from their stakeholders and they learn how to satisfy and balance the needs among them. The Wellness Clinic stakeholders include: (1) the district councilors who hold health courses and concern about the price of the courses, the reputation of the clinic and other self-personal interests, (2) the customers who concern about the costs and services provided by the clinic, and (3) the volunteers who provide free services and concern about the friendliness and the working condition of the clinic. In satisfying their needs, students come up with ideas and customize solutions to give greater feasibility for the district councilors in holding the courses, an acceptable price which fits both the district councilors and the customers, and a satisfactory working environment for the volunteers.

Making the initiatives practical:

The Wellness Clinic is a student-run clinic, thus, it success relies on students’ initiatives and how effective they can execute their plans. In students’ point of view, this turns out to be an excellent opportunity for them to apply their knowledge to practice. This does not only improve students’ sense of responsibility but also their communication skills and the ability to work in a team.

Learning from mistakes:

In running the Wellness Clinic, students face many practical problems. They also learn how to learn from their mistakes and try to find ways to improve the Wellness Clinic. They also developed a feedback learning system which helps in improving the Wellness Clinic. For example, they meet once a week to identify problems and areas that need to be improved. In the meeting, they also brainstorm useful ideas to improve the service level of the Wellness Clinic.