The Salvation Army smoking cessation clinic is a specialty clinic that is ran by two nurse practitioners who have dedicated the better part of their careers to smoking cessation. Let me restate that, the clinic is led by two providers who have sacrificed time and money to tailor their careers around helping underserved people to make the best decision they can for their health. Their names are Audrey Darville and Karma Bryan, and their awesome. The basic workflow of this clinic is to see as many patients as you can between the hours of 6 and 7pm on Thursday nights. Who can’t spar 1 hour? During this hour you employ motivational interviewing techniques to help people along their journey toward smoking cessation and provide nicotine replacement therapy if needed. Audrey and Karma also give you pro tips along the way to help you hone your skills. There are a handful of ways to get involved with this clinic. The first and easiest is signing up for spots as an M1. Another way to get involved is to be a clinic leader/coordinator as an M2. From my experience as a coordinator, this spot isn’t too highly desired so it shouldn’t be too hard to get. I think they’ve taken anywhere from 2-3 students in the past. Then, as an M3 or 4, you can simply volunteer your time as you please. There is a final way to get involved with this clinic, but it’s so good that I’m saving it for the “Why” section below.

Now this... this is where you get your money’s worth. Let’s start with the obvious and most important “why”. The most important “why” is the same “why” that pushed us all toward medicine in the first place. You get to help people. How many times during 1st and 2nd year did you think “I’m not sure if studying for 12+ hrs/day is what I meant by helping people.” Volunteering at the smoking cessation clinic as an M1/M2 is a great way to fulfill your desire to help others. The smoking cessation clinic offers the unique opportunity to talk with patients 1 on 1, come up with a plan, and offer treatment. I challenge you to find another volunteering opportunity that allows you to inter- view, assess, and treat a patient as an M1/M2. I certainly can’t think of one. Above, I outlined how this experience can be fulfilling, but a “why” that comes in close second is how relevant the skills you obtain are. At this point, I thought about inserting some statistic about how many people smoke, or how many diseases are associated with smoking, or whatever. But, I woke up today and decided I’d rather not preach to the choir. We all know smoking is bad. Real bad. I’m confident that whether I’m typing to the future surgeon or the future PCP, I’m also talking to someone who will have patients that can benefit from smoking cessation. The smoking cessation clinic allows you to practice motivational interviewing at a fast pace. The experience you get from volunteering with this clinic is directly transferable to clinical rotations and beyond. Many times, I’ve been with a resident who has told a patient “You know you’ve got to quit smoking.” This comment is almost universally ineffective. I understand that residents are busy and don’t think they have (and often don’t have) the time to do motivational interviewing. But, you know who often does have time? Medical students. Volunteering with the smoking cessation clinic will give you the skills and confidence needed to sit down with a patient for 3-5 extra minutes and tease out their barriers to quitting and how these can be addressed. This gesture is appreciated by patients, residents, and attendings. I alluded to a final way to get involved with this clinic in the previous section, and that final way is through research. Audrey, one of the afore- mentioned NPs that run the clinic, has done and currently does, extensive research in the field, and she is always looking for people to help with re- search. She is also willing to help students with projects that are directly related to the SA smoking cessation clinic. Research is clearly good for furthering the knowledge base of a particular field, but the reason I’m putting it in the “why” section of this article is because it is also good for making your CV sexy. Combining a longitudinal volunteering experience, with some relevant research to show for it, is about as sweet as it gets in CV world. I realize this “why” isn’t the most altruistic “why”, but who wants to eat a cake with no icing on top?

In conclusion, the Salvation Army smoking cessation clinic is the hidden gem of volunteering opportunities. I’ll admit, on its surface, it’s not very attractive. However, once you realize the impact you can have on patients’ health and the impact the clinic can have on your skills, it is hard to imagine a better gig... and if you want the icing on top, it’s all yours. Please reach out to kjgl226@uky.edu if you have any questions related to this article or would like to get in touch with Audrey or Karma. Thank you.