Primary Care Training and Enhancement -- Residency Training in Street Medicine - Community needs addressed: Florida faces a critical and growing physician shortage, with the gap between supply and demand expected to more than double in the next decade. At the same time, Florida ranks #1 in the nation, with nearly 3 million adults experiencing a mental illness. The shortage of medical care is even more pronounced in rural, remote, and marginalized urban communities, areas served by UCF. These underserved regions are also experiencing a homelessness crisis, with 5,766 individuals recorded as experiencing homelessness, many of whom have significant mental health conditions and medical-legal needs. This underscores the urgent need for individuals experiencing homelessness to have access to comprehensive care, including primary medical care, mental health services, and medical-legal support. Educational needs addressed: Despite the pressing need for Street Medicine training, the UCF Graduate Medical Education (GME) Program currently lacks formal training opportunities for its 301 Internal Medicine and Family Medicine residents in this area. Additionally, there is no existing evidence-based, interprofessional Street Medicine Training Course available at no cost on a national level. Addressing this gap is crucial for equipping future physicians with the skills needed to care for vulnerable populations. Proposed services: University of Central Florida College of Medicine is proposing to develop a Street Medicine Training Course for two one-month rotations to contain didactics and experiential training to improve clinical skills and knowledge in Street Medicine for our primary care residents (internal and family medicine). The interprofessional faculty at our college (doctor, clinical psychologist, lawyer) will develop the didactic course. The program will enhance the partnership between the UCF and the local community center Christian Health Services for the Homeless and Chapman Compassionate Care Mobile Clinic for the homeless, where residents supervised by UCF faculty will provide medical care outside of traditional clinical setting. They will provide care for people experiencing homelessness, addressing the social determinant of health, and behavioral health needs (including substance use disorder). They will work in interprofessional teams with behavioral health from Orange Blossom Behavioral Health Services and medical-legal representants from Community Legal Service. The proposed program will create an evidence-based model for Street Medicine Training Course that can be used by any training institution at no cost and with minimal effort. Population groups impacted: The primary beneficiaries of this initiative are the 48 Internal Medicine and Family Medicine residents enrolled in the UCF College of Medicine residency programs, who will receive specialized training in Street Medicine. However, with strong fundraising efforts and by integrating UCF medical students to shadow the residents during the experiential training (at no extra cost), we expect that the program is self-sustained by 2029 and will continue to train UCF residents and medical students for the years to come. Moreover, this program will be established as a benchmark model for Street Medicine course and will have a broader impact beyond UCF, benefiting other primary care residency programs nationwide. The evidence-based model developed, tested, and optimized through our initiative will be made available for implementation at other institutions, allowing them to integrate Street Medicine training into their own residency programs with minimal effort and no cost. This initiative will not only expand access to high-quality interprofessional training but also improve healthcare delivery for people experiencing homelessness nationwide.
