May 14-Hurley’s Internal Medicine (IM) Residency Training Program has added an important component to its current requirement – a “Community Function” program at three Flint area homeless shelters, which is now part of the IM residency training curriculum. 

Thirty residents and their supervising faculty comprise “shelter teams” that visit local shelters during the residents’ staggered, week-long clinic rotations once every five weeks. Each of the three participating shelters is visited by a team of resident physicians one to two days per each five-week block. Currently scheduled for Tuesday afternoons, the resident teams provide one-on-one counseling and health education, group health education sessions, and basic health screening for residents of the homeless shelters. They choose health topics based on their observations of needs, plus conversations with shelter staff, shelter residents, and faculty. 

“The shelter residents, Hurley’s IM residents and the entire Flint community benefit from this experience,” says Eyassu Habte-Gabr, MD, Chairman, Community Function Committee. “It’s a win-win situation  for everyone.”