Following extensive orientations, students can participate in any of the CUP programs. Participation in CUP helps students learn about community service, and enables the students to enhance their clinical and teaching skills. Students learn through this work, the impact of socioeconomic status on access to healthcare, the impact of culture on health, and learn about different value systems. Medical students, under the supervision of a volunteer attending physician, administer and staff a weekly medical clinic for refugees, primarily from Central America. The patients are case-managed through a local church program, and this clinic provides the only medical care for this population.
Students draw labs, give immunizations, provide intake, translation services and medical care.
Volunteer physical therapists and psychologists also provide services for this population, many of whom are victims of torture. Pharmaceutical support is available from Pharm D. students. Medical students travel with residents and an attending nurse practitioner to the Primavera Shelter, a local shelter for homeless men, to provide care and triage to men in the shelter system. Students also see patients at the Salvation Army's Heaven's Gate Shelter. These clinics occur weekly.