Letter: University/community partnerships can be beneficial for all
Creating a partnership can be a pathway to success. The Neighborhood Health Clinic has a long history with the FSU College of Nursing and Medicine’s predecessor, the Program in Medical Science (PIMS).
As a member of the founding Board of Directors in the early 1970s, and later a volunteer, I watched the clinic evolve in its first home, the basement of the Presbyterian University Center. David White, a faculty member in the PIMS Program, was an early Medical Director of the clinic. The focus was on a triad of chronic conditions that plagued the medically underserved: diabetes, hypertension and obesity.
FSU PIMS medical students, FSU nursing students and FAMU Pharmacy students, along with their faculty, provided the volunteer staff. It was a picture of the community uniting to fulfill a need.
Innovative thinking and reaching out could achieve a similar “best practices” model for FSU’s College of Medicine today.
Marie Cowart, Tallahassee, mcowart@fsu.edu