As the day wanes, medical student volunteers with the USF Health Tampa Bay Street Medicine (TBSM) Refugee Clinic are inventorying medical supplies and vaccines before patients arrive for evening appointments.

“In the past six months our patient population doubled,” Azd Al-Mashal, MD, co-founder of the USF Health TBSM Refugee Clinic, said before the start of another busy Wednesday night.

The USF Health TBSM Refugee Clinic provides free medical care to refugees from all over the world, adults and children who now have a common bond of being refugees in the Tampa area. TBSM is a student-run organization dedicated to improving the health of vulnerable populations in our community. The TBSM Refugee Clinic offers medical provider visits, prescriptions, over-the-counter medications, labs, imaging, mental health services, preventative care and hygiene kits to refugees and asylum seekers who don’t have insurance. The clinic is held twice a month, evenings on the second and fourth Wednesday, at USF Health Carol and Frank Morsani Center for Advanced Healthcare.

“Ten years down the line, I definitely want to see Refugee Clinic continuing its incredible momentum of growth,” said Richa Bisht, MD, the former co-director of the USF Health TBSM Refugee Clinic.

To donate to the USF Health Tampa Bay Street Medicine and the Refugee Clinic, please visit giving.usf.edu

The Tampa Bay Street Medicine Project (TBSM) is a USF Health Morsani College of Medicine (MCOM) student-run service organization that was formed in 2014. In response to the growth of the organization, the TBSM Continuity Clinic at Tampa Hope in Ybor has been opened to provide medical care, education, and connections to community members who are homeless, unsheltered, or living below the poverty line.

USF Health medical students, volunteer providers, and other health care professionals operate the clinic, which acts as a transition for patients who do not have constant access to health care. Students provide hygiene kits, over-the-counter medications, and take vital signs. Meanwhile, volunteer faculty physicians and other health professionals help patients with more serious medical conditions.

Third-year medical student Dalan Smallwood at the Tampa Continuity Clinic as part of the TBSM effort.

“In places of most vulnerability, we want to be there to provide service for them and to make sure their health is being taken care of while they’re transitioning through different parts of their lives,” said Natasha Ram, third-year medical student at Morsani College of Medicine and the Tampa Continuity Clinic co-director.

Emily Small, a second-year student in the Physician Assistant program, checks the blood pressure of a patient on a recent street run for the TBSM program.

In addition, the organization continues to serve patients who reside on the streets. The students meet up in Downtown Tampa to take vitals, provide hygiene kits, socks, over-the-counter medications, and prescription medications to the underserved. Volunteer faculty physicians and other health professionals supervise the group when more serious problems arise.

“The goal of Tampa Bay Street Medicine,” said Richa Bisht, fourth-year medical student at Morsani College of Medicine and the Tampa Bay Street Medicine vice president, “is to take care of the homeless here as best we can, offer them as many resources as we can, and give our students the opportunity to work with this group because it’s an important community to take care of.”

To serve more of the underserved population the TBSM community continues to seek the help of more students and volunteers. By bringing together the university and the community, more resources can be made available to those in need. Here is where you can donate to help maintain and grow the mission of the student organization.

“Really the number one thing that we would really need is just having people come volunteer, come help us out, see our patients, and help them feel better,” said Ram.

Story, photos, and video by Ryan Rossy, USF Health Communications and Marketing

The USF Health Tampa Bay Street Medicine, Hillsborough County and Pioneer Foundation Needle Exchange Program is ready to hit the road as Florida’s second needle exchange or syringe service program (SSP). In conjunction with Tampa General Hospital, the Health, Equality and Linkage Project (HELP) Medical Van will offer to persons who inject drugs (PWID), a safe place to turn in used syringes for clean ones to avoid sharing blood-borne diseases like HIV and Hepatitis C, get anonymously tested for those diseases and be linked to free primary care, wound care, or drug treatment programs among other social services. Targeted locations in Hillsborough County will be those with the highest rates of HIV and opioid overdoses such as around the University Square Mall and downtown Tampa.

Representatives for the USF Health Tampa Bay Street Medicine, Hillsborough County and Pioneer Foundation Needle Exchange Program during a mock run through outside the University Square Mall.

Formed in 2014, Tampa Bay Street Medicine (TBSM) is a USF Health Morsani College of Medicine (MCOM) student-run service organization supervised by faculty that provides medical care to underserved populations. It was initially started to meet the needs of Tampa’s homeless community but continues to evolve as student leaders recognize opportunities to help elsewhere. TBSM students conduct biweekly street runs in unsheltered settings near the I-275 bypass, operate continuity clinics at First Presbyterian Church, and staff a medical van at a variety of clinic sites in partnership with Pioneer Medical Foundation.

USF Health Tampa Bay Street Medicine students talk with a homeless man during a night of biweekly street runs in unsheltered settings near the I-275 bypass. Pre-COVID photo.

“We’re going to the same locations where we’ve built that relationship, where they know that we have providers for primary care and they can trust us already,” said Asa Oxner, MD, FACP, faculty advisor for the USF Health TBSM and vice chair of the USF Health MCOM Department of Internal Medicine. “We have around 800 reoccurring customers in these locations, so we can first start by serving the people we already know well and work on marketing and growth.”

At a PWID’s first visit to the program, they can receive up to 10 clean hypodermic needles and every visit after that, it’s a 1:1 exchange. SSP volunteers will also distribute condoms, alcohol swabs, portable sharps containers and Naloxone (or Narcan), an emergency treatment for narcotic overdose. Pioneer also staffs the Lily Pharmacy free medical clinic inside the University Square Mall, adding another layer of resources along with the other community agencies partnering to offer downstream care for clients who engage in the SSP’s services. Enrollees in the program are tracked with a nickname and an ID number associated with a laminated card they’re asked to carry that identifies them as part of the SSP. If the card holder is arrested for drug paraphernalia, USF providers are working with the local police authorities to have our clients placed in drug rehabilitation instead of jail. At the same time, when PWID carry clean needles and a portable sharps container, it protects the law enforcement and first responders in return.

From inside of the medical van, Jerren Creak, MPH, patient care services research associate for Tampa General Hospital, explains the disease testing options to a mock patient, a member of the community in remission from a substance use disorder, during a mock run through of the needle exchange program.

“In communities where drug users are invited to swap out used needles without retribution, hospitals have reported major declines in the spread of blood-borne infections like hepatitis C and HIV, increased enrollment in drug treatment programs and fewer opioid-related overdose deaths,” said Khary Rigg, PhD, associate professor at the University of South Florida’s Department of Mental Health Law & Policy, in a report from the Tampa Bay Times. “As for the cost, research has shown that every $1 spent on needle exchange programs yields an average $7 savings in avoided costs for HIV-related medical treatment.”

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 140 Americans die from drug overdoses every day. The U.S. Opioid Epidemic was declared a public health emergency by the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in 2017. SSPs are a key part of harm reduction strategy, meeting people who use drugs “where they’re at,” and addressing conditions of use along with the use itself. SSPs have been legal in many other states for decades, but it was not legal in Florida until recently. Thanks to the relentless fight for legislative approval and the resulting success of the University of Miami’s IDEA Exchange, a pilot program that was approved in a 2016 exception policy, Governor Ron DeSantis signed into law the Infectious Disease Elimination Act (IDEA) on June 27, 2019.  IDEA allows county commissions to authorize sterile needle and syringe exchange programs for PWID. The law states that disease prevention must be the goal of every exchange program, they cannot use state, county or municipal funds to operate, and they are required to be funded through grants and donations from private resources and funds.

A grant already pays for prescription medications for patients of existing programs operating through partnerships with the University of South Florida, Tampa General Hospital, the Drug Abuse Comprehensive Coordinating Office and Gracepoint, and the SPP will be allowed to use that money to buy the county’s first batch of hypodermic needles and syringes.

With this green light, TBSM and USF faculty began advocating for an SSP in Hillsborough County with the Hillsborough County Commissioner’s Office Opioid Task Force Behavioral Health subcommittee. They used the robust data from Miami’s IDEA Exchange and their program was approved. The needle exchange was supposed to kick off in April but was delayed due to COVID-19.

During a mock run through of the SSP, Heather Henderson, MA, CAS (second from left), USF Applied Medical Anthropology PhD Candidate and director of social medicine programs for Tampa General Hospital, hands a prop to mock patients, members of the community in remission from a substance use disorder, to represent the needle exchange.

In preparation for the official start of the program in December, the USF Health and Pioneer team met in the University Square Mall parking lot with two members of the community in remission from a substance use disorder serving on the SSP advisory board, to do a mock run through and receive their feedback. “This was really great,” said one of the mock patients. “You guys came across that you care and you’re nonjudgmental.”

TBSM will be joined at the needle exchange by USF Health College of Public Health and USF Applied Medical Anthropology students to create a true interprofessional effort to make life better for people in the community. “Preventing acquisition of HIV/HCV requires a complex understanding of the interconnection between biomedical and social dimensions of infectious disease,” said Bernice McCoy, MPH, USF PhD Candidate in Applied Anthropology. “These students will apply both epidemiological and ethnographic methods to contextually assess our SSP’s potential impact and further explore the drug-using habits of PWID. Through this assessment that we can and identify facilitators and barriers towards HIV/HCV risk-reduction within the Tampa Bay community.”

The Opioid Crisis in Florida          

According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, nearly 68% of the 4,698 reported drug overdose deaths in Florida involved opioids in 2018—a total of 3,189 fatalities (Figure 1).

Figure 1. Number of drug and opioid-involved overdose deaths in Florida. Deaths may have involved more than one substance. Source: CDC WONDER

The increase in substance use has resulted in consequent increases in injection drug use across the country. This has caused not only large increases in overdose deaths, but also the transmission of blood-borne diseases. According to the CDC, the majority of new acute hepatitis C virus (HCV) infections are due to injection drug use and Florida is in the top 10 states with the highest rates of infection. According to the Florida Department of Health HIV/AIDS Surveillance Program, about 7% of the new diagnoses of HIV in Florida in 2018 were from injection drug use (IDU) (Figure 2) and 11% of persons living with an HIV diagnosis were persons who inject drugs (PWID) (Figure 3).

Figure 2. HIV modes of exposure in 2018. Source: National HIV Behavioral Surveillance System (NHBS).

Figure 3. The number of persons who inject drugs (PWID) living with an HIV diagnosis in Florida in 2018. Source: NHBS.

According to the CDC, the HIV burden in Florida is the highest in Broward, Duval, Hillsborough (Figure 4), Miami-Dade, Orange, Palm Beach, and Pinellas. It was announced in the February 2019 State of the Union Address that these counties are a part of 57 jurisdictions that are the focus of the Trump administration’s, “Ending the HIV Epidemic: A Plan for America” or EHE initiative, which aims to end the HIV epidemic in the United States by 2030.

Figure 4. Hillsborough County is one of Florida’s HIV hotspots. Source: NHBS.

The IDEA Exchange

On July 1, 2016, after years of struggling to win legislative approval, Miami-Dade became the first county in Florida with a legal hypodermic needle exchange program and on December 1, 2016, World AIDS Day, the IDEA Exchange opened its doors as a pilot program. The IDEA Exchange in Miami was started by Hansel Tookes, MD, MPH, an assistant professor at the University of Miami’s Miller School of Medicine and principle director of its harm reduction research group. NBC Miami reported in June 2019 that the Miami program has disposed of more than 317,000 used needles since it received temporary authorization from lawmakers in 2016. The program also distributes naloxone and Tookes told the Miami Herald in November 2019 that since March 2017, “the IDEA Exchange has handed out 2,871 boxes of the drug and those who have taken naloxone from the clinic to carry with them have reported 1,529 overdose reversals in that time.” Miami is the only place in Florida seeing a decrease in opioid-related mortality while death tolls spike across the state.

Video by Torie Doll, USF Health Communications & Marketing, with interview footage assistance provided by Ian Vancattenburch, Movie Magic Productions.

USF medical students filling a big gap by providing clinical care to maritime workers at Port Tampa Bay

Street Medicine student volunteers prepare to consult with seafarers in need of medical attention at Port Tampa Bay.

More than 37 million tons of cargo pass through Port Tampa Bay every year, much of it ending up on store shelves and in homes across the country. But, what most people do not realize is the human cost connected to delivering the goods and products that power the world – an issue that students at USF Health Morsani College of Medicine are motivated to solve.

For every cargo ship that makes its way to Tampa Bay, dozens of on-board workers, or seafarers, come with it. They’re the hidden hands that are crucial to the world’s economy since more than 90 percent of global trade is carried at sea.

While the labor these seafarers provide is vital, their health and well-being are often overlooked. The work aboard these vessels is inherently dangerous. Workers can be away from their homes for up to a year at a time and can spend months at sea before coming into port. Once docked, many times, they’re not able to go ashore due to strict security and immigration concerns. Combine those hurdles with low wages and limited access to employer-provided health care and seeing a doctor may be impossible.

For Dennis Martin, general manager of operations, safety and training at Port Tampa Bay, these issues are all too familiar. Martin, who has been involved in the maritime community for more than 40 years, says there are significant challenges in providing health care to the seafarer population and while there are companies that take an interest in their employees’ welfare, many others that do not.

“Owners need to be educated on the importance of looking after their crews,” said Martin, who is also a board member of the Tampa Port Ministries Seafarers Center. “In the short term, we, as responsible people, have to do all we can to assist with the welfare of the crews that visit our port.”

Morsani College of Medicine student Jameson Kuang examining a seafarer. Credit: Tampa Bay Street Medicine

USF medical students are turning that idea into action. Formed in 2014, Tampa Bay Street Medicine (TBSM) is a student-run organization that provides medical care to underserved populations. It was initially started to meet the needs of Tampa’s homeless community but continues to evolve as student leaders recognize opportunities to help elsewhere.

“When this idea came to us we thought that a Seafarer’s Clinic really did align with the mission of Tampa Bay Street Medicine, in terms of helping those who do not have easy access to health care,” said Derek Krinock, a third-year USF medical student and incoming co-president of TBSM. “This is an amazing opportunity for us to bring this care to a vulnerable population.”

Thanks to a partnership between USF Health medical students, Port Tampa Bay and the Tampa Port Ministries Seafarers Center, a non-profit ministry organization that provides support for seafarers, TBSM volunteers are able to travel onto the port and offer basic clinical care to visiting workers. Depending on the wants and needs of the vessels docked at the time, students, along with volunteer faculty physician supervisors, will even go onto ships to care for those who are not able to disembark.

While still in its infancy, the clinics have already been successful. Students set up a clinical space inside the Seafarer Center and conduct physical exams, help seafarers manage chronic conditions and provide acute care when necessary.

“I think most of us will say we went to medical school because we want to be able to help people and improve their lives,” said Abby Pribish, a fourth-year medical student and outgoing co-president of TBSM. “An organization like ours lets students start living that dream even while we’re still in school. And I think that one of the highest impact ways we can do this is by helping underserved populations like the homeless or seafarers gain access to care.”

“I have been involved in the port ministry for fourteen years,” said Al Kocot, president of the Tampa Port Ministries Seafarers Center’s Board of Directors. “This is the first time an opportunity like this has come along. I was amazed that there are doctors and medical students who would volunteer so much of their time to serve others who are in need.”

Morsani College of Medicine students, Derek Krinock (left) and Abby Pribish (right), talk about an upcoming Tampa Bay Street Medicine clinic.

Gina Rathbun, director of physician and community relations for USF Health, initially brought the idea to university officials. Before working at USF Health, Rathbun spent a decade at Port Tampa Bay and knows firsthand the issues facing seafarers. She says she saw this as an opportunity for USF students and faculty to make an impact on a population of people that are often overlooked. She and her colleague, Hiram Green, director of community engagement for USF Health, met with key members of the Seafarers Center and Port Tampa Bay. With support from USF Health Senior Vice President Charles Lockwood, who comes from a long line of merchant marine captains, the desire to help morphed into these student-led clinics.

TBSM officials say the benefit is two-fold; students can provide medical care to people who need it and gain valuable clinical experience while still in school. It’s a concept that benefits everyone involved and something those spearheading the effort believe can be a model for other port communities across the country.

About USF Health
USF Health’s mission is to envision and implement the future of health. It is the partnership of the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine, the College of Nursing, the College of Public Health, the College of Pharmacy, the School of Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation Sciences, the Biomedical Sciences Graduate and Postdoctoral Programs, and the USF Physicians Group. USF Health is an integral part of the University of South Florida, a high-impact, global research university dedicated to student success. For more information, visit www.health.usf.edu

About Port Tampa Bay
Port Tampa Bay is Florida’s largest port and the largest economic engine in west central Florida, supporting nearly 85,000 jobs and generating over $17 billion in annual economic impact. In addition to being a top 10 U.S. cruise port, the port handles a wide array of bulk, break bulk, containers and roll-on/roll-off cargoes, and is a major shipbuilding and repair center.

About Tampa Port Ministries Seafarers Center
The Tampa Seafarers Center is a non-profit Christian ministry organization that seeks to provide an environment for meeting the physical, social and spiritual needs of seafarers and others who use the facilities of the Port of Tampa, regardless of their race, creed, color or religious background. Executive Director Steve Finnesy performs the day-to-day operations at the Seafarers Center.

Photographs by Eric Younghans, USF Health Communications

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The group visits the homeless where they live – on the streets.  They go without white coats, carrying backpacks stocked with over-the-counter medications, first aid supplies, hygiene products and socks.  They sit next to their patients on a sidewalk or curb and make eye contact.  “How are you? Anything we can do to help you tonight?” the medical students ask.

The Tampa Bay Street Medicine Project (TBSM) was founded more than two years ago by five University of South Florida medical students with the support of a grant from Alpha Omega Alpha honor medical society.  The core group shared a common passion: providing much needed health care and advocacy for a homeless population often neglected.  Since July 2015, the project’s student volunteers have logged nearly 1,600 interactions with homeless individuals during their street runs on the outskirts of downtown Tampa and at clinics conducted at The Well drop-in center and First Presbyterian Church of Tampa.

They are supervised by volunteer faculty physicians and other health professionals, who step in when more severe problems arise.  But the dozen or so students – who gather in a vacant parking lot adjacent to a graffiti-covered wall every other Friday evening and disperse in small groups to offer care to the homeless – do much themselves. They take medical histories, do physical check-ups and hygiene education and address many common medical complaints, including musculoskeletal pain (common among those sitting and sleeping on sidewalks), headaches, coughs and congestion, itchy skin, wounds, and a lot of foot problems.

The USF project was modeled after the tenets set forth by the International Street Medicine Institute, which leads a global network of more than 80 groups practicing street medicine.

“Their motto is we go to the people,” said Eric Monaco, one of the founding members of Tampa Bay Street Medicine who last year served as a co-president for the student-run organization. “It levels the playing field and helps build trust when you meet with people where they are — whether that’s under the bridge at I-275 or at a bus station near the Salvation Army.”

Breaking down barriers

Monaco graduated in April 2016 from the Morsani College of Medicine and plans to continue street medicine in some capacity following completion of his family medicine residency at Ventura County Medical Center in Ventura, CA.  On street runs earlier this year, Monaco did not hesitate to approach a woman lying on the sidewalk to check on her or gently lean in to touch the shoulder of a man sitting beneath a street lamp with his head buried in his knees.  He often stopped to chat with those he cared for and knows by name; and, in turn, they often greeted him with a smile and occasional handshake.

The stereotypes of homelessness break down once you begin listening without judgment to stories about how people end up on the street, the students say.

Many struggle with mental illness and addiction, without family support or other safety nets to catch them when they fall, said Shawna Foley, a fourth-year medical student and president of Tampa Bay Street Medicine.

“I think there’s often an assumption that the homeless are lazy or don’t want to work, but that’s not the case for many of the people I’ve met out here,” Foley said.  “We’ve provided care to a professor and other people who were in high-powered jobs and made good money.  Something just happens — a death in the family, an illness, an injury from a car accident — which leads to a chain of events that brings them here.”

Perhaps even more valuable than the basic medical and preventive care provided, the students say, is their willingness to listen to those they meet.  To begin to see the individuals, rather than nameless and faceless people on the streets.

“I really don’t believe people choose to live on the street, but I think many choose to make the best of it,” Monaco said.  “They have really valuable perspectives, and I’ve learned a lot from the conversations we’ve shared about their experiences.”

Dr. Waldo Guerrero, an assistant professor of neurology and a street medicine faculty advisor, says every time he accompanies students on a street run it reinforces his passion for helping those who are underserved, often with the least access to care.

“I definitely think this project breaks down barriers,” Dr. Guerrero said. “I’d love more faculty to come out and be part of it. Every time I do it reminds me of why I went into medicine and just how fortunate we are, in general, as physicians.”

“We’re limited in the extent of care we can provide with the resources we have,” he added.  “But just being able to take time to have a conversation with someone, to hear them out, is something we don’t necessarily do on a daily basis when we’re seeing multiple patients in a hospital or clinic.”

First Backpack, First Encounter

The contents of the backpacks carried have evolved since the first five students embarked on their initial street run with one borrowed backpack.

“The first time… we just threw together a bag with stethoscopes, blood pressure cuffs and some basic meds,” Monaco said.  “We were in a completely different environment than the hospital and clinics and so maybe that backpack was a little symbol of safety to us.”

As they returned with more and bigger backpacks, the students began asking people they saw regularly what they needed.  They sought donated items and stocked the packs with toenail clippers, feminine hygiene products, blanket and beanies, and more socks, which seemed to always run in short supply.

Foley recalls feeling a little anxious and awkward the first time she went out on a street run. She was unsure how to introduce herself or ease into the community of homeless.  But, she says, the encounters got easier the more times she went out.

“You just have to sit down in the dirt and have real conversations with people,” Foley said. “I emphasize that with a lot of the first-and second year-students who come out on the street for the first time.  Don’t be afraid to get your hands dirty; you’re not wearing white coats.”

The street medicine project became her favorite part of medical school the first year, Foley added.  “I always left the street runs feeling so good about everything we were doing and so much gratitude for everything I had. And that really helped, because it was hard my first semester in medical school.” 

Expanding the Reach

In 2014, TBSM partnered with The Well, a community drop-in center on Florida Avenue offering a variety of services for the homeless, so that students could provide follow-up care for their patients from the streets in a sheltered location.

Tom Logan was among the homeless patients helped by USF medical students at The Well.  Before he ended up on the streets in downtown Tampa, Logan said he lived with his family in a two-story home he owned and was making $50,000 to $60,000 a year as a courier and a building inspector in St. Louis, Mo.  Now he falls asleep to the “sound of sirens.”

“It’s not a joke when people say you’re one paycheck away from being homeless,” Logan said. “What the students are doing is very important. They’ve helped me watch my diet, watch my weight and kept a check on my blood pressure – things I wouldn’t be able to do on my own.”

Although The Well’s daytime drop-in center on Florida Avenue closed its doors in November (the organization is transitioning to a mobile model of outreach to the homeless), TBSM continues to operate a free indoor health clinic the third Saturday of each month at First Presbyterian Church of Tampa on Zack Street.  A second monthly clinic will be added at the church beginning in February 2017.

The arrangement allows medical students supervised by licensed health care practitioners to offer more in-depth, personalized care than possible on street runs.  For instance, they can provide more extensive wound care, prescribe some basic medications and monitor those with high blood pressure and chronic conditions, such as diabetes, arthritis and heart disease to help keep them out of the emergency room.

The students are also exploring the possibility of working with residents and faculty from the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neurosciences to provide some mental health services.

And, this November, Skye Schmelzer donated to TBSM $25,000 of a $50,000 Lightning Foundation grant she received when she was honored as a Tampa Bay Lightning Community Hero of Tomorrow.  Schmeltzer, who endured many nights of uncertainty as a homeless teenager in high school and is taking classes at USF to help her apply to medical school, intends for the funds be used to help USF’s TBSM establish a mobile outreach clinic to serve the homeless in the Tampa Bay area.

“I think it’s a huge advantage for these medical students, many of whom come from the suburbs, to be connected with people who live in a different world,” said Jon Dengler, executive director of The Well.  “My hope is that they remember the relationships they’ve made with our guests from the streets, so once they are practicing doctors they not only remember the poor financially but also are better equipped to treat patients from all walks of life without prejudice.”

Meanwhile the TBSM continues to seek more student and faculty volunteers.  The goal of serving more homeless, however, may require additional resources from the university or community, especially as grant funding runs out, Foley said.

For more information on the Tampa Bay Street Medicine Project, visit http://tbstreetmed.wix.com/tbsm.

Video and photos by Sandra C. Roa, USF Health Communications 

USF Health medical students won a grant from the Alpha Omega Alpha medical honor society to continue implementing a mentoring program that pairs current health students with future health students and provides them with a service learning project that benefits local homeless communities.

The inter-professional group won $5,000 for the first year, $3,000 for the second year, and $1,000 for the third year for its USF Health Plexus/Tampa Bay Street Medicine (TBSM) Leadership though Service Cooperative, an innovative project that connects health professional students (medicine, pharmacy, and physical therapy) with pre-health undergraduate students.

The cooperative effort is a combination of the Plexus mentoring project and TBSM, a USF MCOM organization that provides care to the local homeless community in the Tampa Bay area. Students can participate in Plexus alone, TBSM alone, or the USF Health Plexus/TBSM cooperative, said S. Nick Kovacs, third-year medical student and founder and director of USF Health Plexus.

“Receiving this award is extremely exciting,” Kovacs said. “The funds will help Plexus implement the new leadership curriculum, but more importantly will aid in the purchase of the equipment and supplies necessary for providing the appropriate education and care to the Tampa Bay homeless community. Also, winning the AOA award is a bit of reassurance that we are doing something truly special here.”

The founders of the three groups decided to collaborate in order to provide a service learning opportunity for mentors and undergraduate mentees alike, Kovacs said.

“We feel this service component will be an invaluable experiential learning opportunity for students to implement and embed the newly acquired knowledge, skills, and attitudes attained through the expanded program curriculum,” he said. “Through this collaboration we will create the cycle of learning leadership through teaching leadership and partnering in service.”

“This prestigious three-year award from the national AOA office will advance IPE leadership training in addition to providing service to our community,” said Patricia Emmanuel, MD, professor and chair of the Department of Pediatrics in the USF Health, Morsani College of Medicine. “It was a joint effort of students and faculty mentors from across USF Health and our Dean helped seal the deal with matching funds.”

USF Health Plexus gives undergraduate students support and guidance for developing the professional behaviors and characteristics found within their chosen health professions. The Plexus Mentoring Program inducted its first class of 23 mentors and 30 mentees in October 2013. Mentors include 20 medical students and three pharmacy students. Mentees include nine freshman, eight sophomores, six juniors, and seven seniors. Mentors and mentees completed an application to participate in the program that helped determine program and career interests, demographics, and match mentors and mentees based on similar personal/professional interests.

Team members of Plexus include Kovacs, Bailee Oliff (second-year medical student), Sara Anderson (first-year pharmacy student), and Elizabeth D’Esposito (first-year pharmacy student), with additional support from Anabel Anon (second-year medical student).

Team members of TBSM include Jason Ricciuti (third-year medical student), Karim Khan (second-year medical student), Christopher Childs (third-year medical student), Shawna Foley (first-year medical student), and Eric Monaco. Founding TBSM planning team include Elizabeth Black (third-year medical student), Samson Lu (second-year medical student), Candace Gonzalez (second-year medical student), Michelle Blanco (third-year medical student), Michael Manasterski (third-year medical student), Stephen Mayper (third-year medical student), and Susan Kunihiro (third-year medical student).

Faculty mentors include Kevin Casey, Shirley Smith and Shaterra White of the Office of Student Diversity and Enrichment in the Morsani College of Medicine; Dr. Patricia Emmanuel, chair of the Department of Pediatrics and USF Health AOA counselor; Dr. Steven Specter in Student Affairs; Dr. Cathy Lynch in the Department of OB/GYN; Dr. Elizabeth Warner in the Department of Internal Medicine and co-facilitator of the Health Disparities Scholarly Concentration; and Dr. Harry van Loveren, in the Department of Neurosurgery and interim dean of the Morsani College of Medicine.

Story by Sarah Worth, USF Health Office of Communications. Photo by Anabel Anon, second-year medical student