In search of home: from home to homeless to housing.

In 1992, Oregon Health and Sciences University (OHSU) introduced the Principles of Clinical Medicine (PCM) course with the intent of providing medical students early in their training with a patient-centered care context. Students are enrolled in this two-year longitudinal course at the same time they are learning basic sciences. PCM consists of two components: a weekly preceptorship in which students spend four hours each week with a community physician and four hours in classes focusing on the knowledge, skills, and attitudes involved in providing patient-centered care. One of the goals of this curriculum is to help students develop cultural sensitivity. This is not an opportunity to interview a patient from an ethnic or cultural background other than their own. They are then asked to relate the patient’s situation and to reflect upon the experience within the context of what was learned during the PCM quarters, including a discussion of US health care policy and economics. This assignment moves the students out of their comfort zone and enables them to learn things about patients and cultures that they never would otherwise. We consider it to be the best opportunity we offer to promote the practice of culturally sensitive medicine. Our faculty continue to be amazed not only that students learn so much, but that they often write so eloquently about these experiences.