Medical students at Duke University can take part in the school's branch of the Student Rural Health Coalition of North Carolina. This group is part of a larger coalition that includes students and faculty from Duke, the University of North Carolina and other organizations. Through the program, students can participate in rural health clinics, such as the Freemont Clinic, run for the benefit of low-income residents of the state. The coalition's mission statement asserts that access to health care is a basic human right. Members aim to ensure that right.
Students can participate in the Cancer Patient Support Program as an extracurricular activity. Program participants learn methods for helping individuals, couples and families cope with cancer. Duke students can participate in and observe support groups, workshops and companion relationships. The Cancer Patient Support Program works with cancer patients and their friends and family through diagnosis, treatment, recovery, survival and preparation for the loss of a loved one.
Duke is home to a number of student associations in which School of Medicine students can take part. Among these are the American Medical Association Medical Student Section, Student National Medical Association, the Christian Medical and Dental Society, the American Medical Women's Association and the Asian Pacific American Medical Student Association. Non-medical student associations include Adopt a Grandparent, Advent Christian Fellowship, a chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, the Arab Student Organization and Graduate and Professional Student Council, the graduate school student government.
The Duke Medical Gleaning Program is an extracurricular activity through which students salvage medical supplies and send them to developing nations for use in clinics and hospitals. Duke medical students also can volunteer at local middle schools and homeless shelters and work with the Children's Miracle Network telethon, a fundraiser for children's hospitals throughout the United States.