We welcome physician and pharmacist preceptors from diverse specialties and practice settings. Our clinic operates on Sundays and preceptors typically work from 9:30 - 1:30, providing a mix of patient care and volunteer education.

We expect preceptors to commit to a minimum of 1 shift every 3 months. Prospective preceptors must be licensed in the State of Texas and liability coverage must extend to volunteer activities at HOMES Clinic.

Our preceptors find HOMES Clinic among their most rewarding professional experiences. To learn more about our clinic, model of healthcare, and logistics, please reach out to: homes.director@gmail.com. We would love to hear from you!

Yes! We are accepting volunteers for the 2023 - 2024 year. You can find out more here

We love our volunteers and recognize them in several ways:

1) Every year, we select two volunteers for HHH’s “Outstanding Volunteer Award.” Awardees will be recognized at the annual HHH Volunteer Appreciation Event and receive both a certificate and a physical award which varies by year. In 2022, awardees received a crystal heart with a thoughtful inscription. Awardees are chosen by the Board of Directors.

2) Starting in 2022, we will now annually recognize a “Manager of the Year” who will receive the same benefits as the Outstanding Volunteer Award described above.

3) We now offer a “Certificate in Clinic Management” for volunteers who successfully complete the rigorous manager training process, and a “Distinction in Clinic Management” for managers who remain active throughout the year. These certificates carry the official HOMES Clinic letterhead and are signed by our Executive Directors and Physician Faculty.

BCM Only: HOMES Clinic is now a designated SLP site for managers / MiTs! If you are interested in counting HOMES managing as a SLP activity, contact the SLP program directly and cc homes.manage@gmail.com. The 2022 - 2023 SLP Opportunity is now closed but please check in Fall 2023 for the next opportunity!

All other sites: We are working on developing similar opportunities for your hard work and volunteerism to be formally recognized. Stay tuned…Or, if you have an idea, use the Contact Us form to let us know!

Join our listserv & subscribe to our newsletter!

Arrive based on your role. The day starts at:

• 7:30am for managers/MiTs

• 7:45am for pre-clinical students & clinical students

• 8:30am for health advocates

Make sure you have on your school’s ID badge.

For health advocates: business casual. Otherwise: closed-toed shoes, scrubs +/- an appropriate school-affiliated jacket (no white coats please!).

There is a limit of 1 shift / month for the pre-clinical role to ensure this opportunity is available to the maximum number of interested students. There is no restriction on how often you can volunteer as a health advocate, manager, clinical student, or pharmacy student. We encourage you to join us often!

If you would like to help support the functions of HOMES Clinic outside a structured volunteer role in the clinic setting, we are always looking for interested students to help support our current programmatic agenda. Reach out to: homes.director@gmail.com.

Yes, we need proof of successful completion of an approved COVID-19 vaccination schedule. More info will be provided to volunteers that are signed up for a shift.

If you cannot / do not wish to provide proof of vaccination, you may apply for an exemption. The exemption must be requested at least 15 days prior to your shift. Please send this completed form in an email to: carlieb@bcm.edu, victoria.mccurry@bcm.edu, dana.clark@bcm.edu, & homes.web@gmail.com.

We are continually inspired by the enormous interest students demonstrate for volunteering at HOMES and serving our community. Under current COVID-19 restrictions, we can only accommodate a maximum of 15 volunteers each week given limited workspace and number of exam rooms in the clinic. We hope to be able to increase this number in the future (once restrictions can be reduced) and continue to explore creating additional avenues for volunteer participation.

Sign-ups are released at 12:00pm every 20th day of each month via listserv email sent by your school’s representative. We encourage those interested in volunteering to sign-up as soon as possible - be sure that you have completed any administrative requirements beforehand (like NICER forms for BCM students). Additionally, we encourage prospective volunteers to consider other roles, like health advocate, which often do not fill up as quickly.

Different partner institutions have different requirement to ensure liability coverage for volunteers. For UTH, volunteer opportunities are tied to needing a UTH faculty/adjunct present in clinic. Since preceptors can only confirm their availability about a month in advance, it is not possible to use a lottery to schedule interested volunteers over the span of a semester or longer.

Additionally, managing volunteer cancellations and finding replacements requires significant human resources - labor our Operations team is not able to consistently provide. Allowing volunteers to select shifts based on their individual availability decreases chances of cancellations.

HOMES Clinic re-opened its doors on February 28, 2021, under the direction of a rigorous covid re-opening plan that was independently approved by each of our partner organizations. The situation with the pandemic is still fluid. Therefore, clinic operations continually adapt and evolve in response to changing epidemiology, state and national policy, and emerging evidence-based guidelines. Our main priority is patient and volunteer safety.

Providing in-depth, comprehensive visits is a benefit of HOMES Clinic - not a consequence. Our patients come to us with numerous co-morbid medical conditions, complex social circumstances, and, often, a lengthy list of bad experiences with the healthcare system leaving them feeling disenfranchised and distrustful of providers. As a primary care clinic dedicated to achieving excellent outcomes for our patients, we value taking the time to build a foundation of trust with our patients. Moreover, we strive to provide them with a comprehensive work-up as, often, our patients have not seen a doctor in months or years - this includes investigating medical, psychological, and social concerns to provide excellent care at the bedside and to connect our patients to strong safety-net services to set them on a path to success.

Patient volume is further limited by preceptor availability and space within our clinic (only 4 exam rooms). We value the tremendous interest demonstrated by motivated students passionate about volunteering at HOMES, and we appreciate your understanding that the scarcity of resources constrains our patient volume.

We can only host volunteers from programs which hold an active memorandum of understanding (MOU) with our parent organization, Healthcare for the Homeless-Houston. We have standing MoUs with Baylor College of Medicine (MD Program), UTH McGovern medical school (MD Program), and University of Houston College of Pharmacy (PharmD program).

Due to the clinical nature of our work, we can only host students with appropriate clinical training and student liability/malpractice coverage through their institution.

Unfortunately, no - but we appreciate the enthusiasm! All volunteers must have liability coverage through their institutions, which, at a minimum, requires active matriculated student status.

BCM: Students who maintain enrollment status at the School of Medicine during their dual-degree (e.g. MBA, MRP, MSTP) continue to use NICER. Students on a leave of absence (e.g. MD/JD program) must check with the Deans. If you are unsure of your enrollment status at the School of Medicine, you should check with the Deans.

UTH: If you are in a dual degree program or in a research year at UTH where enrollment in the medical school is maintained, you are eligible to volunteer. If you are on a Leave of Absence, we cannot host you to participate in any activities at our clinic. If you have questions about your eligibility to volunteer, please direct them to your medical school administration.

UHCOP: Students on a leave of absence (not actively enrolled) cannot volunteer at HOMES

Other Affiliates: We are actively awaiting an answer. You will know as soon as we do!

Unfortunately, residents are not covered under the standing Memorandum of Understanding. Additionally, all preceptors must be licensed in the State of Texas.

We have, and we receive proposals for these often. While we closely consider every potential avenue of expanding and improving care for our patients, specialty clinics present an enormously complex challenge. If we offer screening or specialty care, we must have a sound pathway, independent of one’s insurance status, that links patients into appropriate higher level care and treatment in a timely manner, should we identify a problem beyond our scope to manage.

Consider that many dermatologic conditions, for instance, require use of a pathology lab, a way to follow up with patients to communicate biopsy results, and expensive therapies (drugs to treat lupus can range from $1,000 - $35,000 per year). Some procedures are invasive - what will the scope of practice be for students vs. preceptors, and is this consistent with the standard of care elsewhere? Furthermore, consider that volunteers and preceptors must have liability insurance that extends to activities at HOMES Clinic. Ideally, the proposed clinic will align with the full HOMES mission, which includes education and social services.

Proposals that can appropriately anticipate and resolve challenges at this level of detail are welcome. Please review our proposal guidelines for more information.

Happy to hear it! First, please carefully review our proposal guidelines & consider these questions regarding your project.

Next, contact your school’s Representative or fill out our "contact us" form.

For smaller initiatives, Representatives will connect you to the appropriate officers, and it will be at their discretion whether to greenlight your idea. More involved projects must be submitted to the Board of Directors for a formal vote at: homes.director@gmail.com Our Board meetings occur approximately once every two months.