Medical Student Patient Navigation Program to Enhance Medical Education and Improve Prevention Screening in Residents of Southern New Jersey

The Medical Student Patient Navigation Program, an educational and community-focused initiative designed to strengthen medical education while improving preventive screening uptake among residents of Southern New Jersey. Grounded in the principle that hands-on, community-engaged training enriches student learning and addresses local health disparities, this program integrates medical students into patient navigation roles where they actively support individuals in accessing recommended preventive services. Students receive structured training in patient communication, health system navigation, cultural humility, and barriers identification, enabling them to guide patients through scheduling, insurance navigation, follow-up adherence, and linkage to community resources. The program aims to provide dual benefits: experiential learning for future physicians and measurable improvements in preventive screening rates among underserved populations.

The project emphasizes prevention screening, such as cancer screenings, chronic disease risk assessments, and age-appropriate immunizations, targeting populations in Southern New Jersey who face obstacles to care. By embedding students in navigation roles, the program fosters sustained patient relationships and continuity, which are critical for closing preventive care gaps. Navigation activities include outreach to patients overdue for screenings, individualized barrier assessment, appointment coordination, reminders, accompaniment when appropriate, and collaboration with primary care and specialty clinics to streamline referrals. Students collaborate with clinical preceptors and community partners to ensure alignment with existing services and to identify systems-level improvements.

From an educational perspective, the program provides learners with early, longitudinal clinical exposure that emphasizes social determinants of health, interprofessional teamwork and patient-centered care. Students develop competencies in health communication, motivational interviewing, and systems-based practice while reflecting on structural barriers that affect health outcomes. Faculty mentorship and formal evaluation components allow measurement of student learning and program impact. Data collected include screening completion rates, rates of successful navigation to appointments, patient satisfaction, and student competency growth. These metrics support continuous quality improvement and provide evidence for scaling and sustaining the model.

The initiative situates itself within Rowan University's growing portfolio of community-engaged research and seed-funded projects. While part of a broader institutional effort to translate early-stage projects into larger grants and clinical implementation, Collins' navigation program specifically seeks to demonstrate that student-led navigation can be an effective, scalable strategy to increase preventive care uptake in underserved regions. Expected outcomes include improved screening rates, enhanced patient engagement, strengthened community-clinical linkages, and enriched medical training experiences that prepare students to address health inequities. Through rigorous evaluation and stakeholder partnership, the program aspires to offer a reproducible model for integrating medical education with population health interventions that benefit both learners and the communities they serve.