Physician Supervisors Needed: January through April 2017
In April 2016, the Bridge Clinic Project (BCP) at Boston University School of Medicine received a grant in the amount of $5,000 to support Bridging Gaps in Care, a student-led, physician-supervised community service project.
The objectives of the program are two-fold:
- To provide supplementary medical services to an underserved community
- To foster the development of student leaders in community medicine
Medical students participating in the BCP benefit by gaining real-life exposure to the social and economic determinants of their patients’ health, including age, gender, immigrant status, economic status and race, among many other factors. Medical students who participate in BCP also have more opportunities to practice their history-taking and clinical skills, and are more adept at building a good physician-patient rapport. Weekly student-led clinics are held at two low-income elderly housing communities: Marcus Garvey Gardens in Roxbury and 45 Amory Street, a Boston Housing Authority (BHA) building.
Under the supervision of physician mentors, BCP provides important preventive measures such as on-site physical exams, screenings and educational workshops for residents of the two housing communities. Physical exams and screenings emphasize the detection and management of common health problems for the elderly. The need for physician supervision of student clinicians during these exams brings highly trained personnel with hospital admitting privileges into a community with low physician contact, increasing the likelihood of identifying and treating more serious medical problems at an early stage.
Although the weekly clinics are on hiatus during November and December, the clinics will resume in January and run through April 2017. After a May-June break, the clinics will start again in July with a new group of medical student leaders. To keep these important clinics running, physician supervisors are needed. If interested in serving as a Physician Supervisor for the BCP, please contact aolsen@bu.edu.
Boston University Medical School student Betsy Thomas (left) works with a client at Marcus Garvey Gardens.
Boston University Medical School student Michel Apoj (right) consults with Dr. Eric Hardt of Boston Medical Center's Geriatrics Division at Marcus Garvey Gardens.
