From California's San Joaquin Valley to Beyond: The Primetime Model for Pre-Medical Clinical Skills Training and Health Equity

Context: California’s San Joaquin Valley (SJV) communities have historically experienced economic disenfranchisement, poor health outcomes, and limited access to healthcare. The ratio of physicians per 100,000 population in the SJV who provide patient care is 36% lower than the statewide ratio. The UC Health workforce recommends recruiting pre-medical students from SJV to improve the physician pipeline. Primetime is a UCSF medical student-run organization focused on empowering SJV pre-medical students to become competent physicians through medical school application and interview workshops, mentorship, and networking events. We sought to evaluate the impact of a clinical skills workshop on self-rated confidence and knowledge of workshop objectives and the perceived access to clinical opportunities in the SJV. Description: Using the 2025 Primetime participant survey data, workshops focused on presenting predominant health issues in the SJV. The 5-hour event comprised five workshops led by medical students and faculty: American College of Surgeons (ACS) Stop the Bleed (STB), Immigrant Health and History Taking, Vital Signs & Auscultation, Suturing, and Airway Management & Narcan. Students learned how to control severe bleeding via ACS STB certification, obtain culturally sensitive histories from immigrant patients via case-based simulation, measure vital signs and auscultate heart/lung sounds, apply suturing techniques, and intubate and administer Narcan (see Supplemental Material). Evaluation of Innovation: 30 students participated in the workshop, of whom 20 completed both a pre and post survey and were included in the analysis. The inclusion criteria were ≥ 18 years of age, participation in the workshop, and submission of both surveys. The surveys assessed participants’ confidence and knowledge related to workshop-specific topics using a 5-point Likert scale (1 = not confident, 5 = very confident). Pre-and post-survey responses were compared using paired t-tests. Mean self-rated confidence increased across all workshop skills (p < 0.0001). Self- reported confidence improved for STB (M = 1.8 to 4.6), history-taking (M = 2.2 to 4.2), auscultation (M = 2.0 to 3.9), vital signs (M = 1.0 to 4.0), suturing (M = 2.3 to 4.3), Narcan (M = 1.8 to 4.9), and airway (M = 1.45 to 4.3). Knowledge scores increased from (M = 3.0 to 3.9) (p < 0.01). Also, 41.6% of participants rated the accessibility of clinical experience opportunities as a 2, while 33.3% rated accessibility as 3 on a 5-point scale (1 = poor, 5 = excellent). Participants represented diverse demographic and academic backgrounds consistent with the typical medical school applicant pool. Our aim to serve participants of underrepresented minority status (62.5%), income below the poverty line (50.0%), and from undergraduate institutions in or proximate to the SJV (87.5%) was successfully achieved. Discussion: The Primetime Clinical Skills Workshop successfully engaged students from underrepresented minority backgrounds and provided clinical skills training to individuals with limited access to clinical opportunities. By offering hands-on clinical experiences in a structured environment, the workshop addressed barriers related to limited clinical exposure, mentorship, and career preparatory resources faced by students from underserved communities. Limitations of our study include the small sample size, which may affect generalizability. Future directions of this program include implementation of a comprehensive longitudinal clinical skills program with prospective assessment of matriculation into medical school. Target Audience: Core elements of this workshop are readily applicable to pre-medicine, nursing, PA, pharmacy, and community health worker programs. Institutions that lack access to simulation centers can replicate the model using portable equipment, community partnerships, and recruiting interprofessional faculty. This model can be adopted by diverse educational programs seeking to strengthen early clinical exposure and workforce readiness in healthcare.