Dear Senior Medical Student,

Many students enter medical school committed to service. Unfortunately, traditional medical education frequently does not support or encourage their ideals, and in the end, they are either lost or forgotten. We are trying to change that.

The Greater Lawrence Family Health Center is committed to serving those in our society who have long been denied access to medical care. Together with Lawrence General Hospital, we have developed a new model of family medicine training in which service and education are not competing interests. Unburdened by institutional notions of residency education, long since proven ineffective or even harmful, we have designed every aspect of the program with one goal in mind: to educate and encourage physicians in a way that maintains their commitment to service and caring. To accomplish this, educational needs must and will come first. The training is rigorous. You will work very hard when your education demands it, but not simply for the convenience of the faculty or the hospital. You will feel like you are working with the faculty, not for the faculty. In Lawrence you will find support and camaraderie in a system which invests in your education.

While it is not necessary to know Spanish upon entering the program, the residency provides an intensive Spanish course at the beginning of the first year and weekly courses thereafter. By the time you graduate, you will speak Spanish and be familiar with the cultural aspects of delivering health care in a Latino community. The lessons learned will be easily expandable to other underserved communities in the United States and abroad.

The Lawrence Family Medicine Residency is based at a community health center adjacent to Lawrence General Hospital. It is located twenty-five miles north of Boston in a state-of-the-art computerized teaching facility. The health center’s mission is to serve a predominantly Latino community which historically has had inadequate access to care. You will be the primary physician for your patients, many of whom previously have had little or no comprehensive care. Working here, you will gain a first-hand understanding of the needs of the underserved, the realities of life on the margins of society, and you will become enriched by the diversity of cultures one inevitably encounters. Because medical "poverty" is often accompanied by income poverty and other social problems, you will work in a system which addresses social service needs along with medical needs.

Our faculty members are exceptionally well trained and committed to caring for the most vulnerable segments of our society. In addition to serving the underserved in the United States, faculty members have worked in Peru, Puerto Rico, Venezuela, West Africa, the Dominican Republic, Mexico, India, Nepal, Lebanon, and Guatemala. We encourage those who have an interest in international health. While we are realistic about how much impact we can have in the world or even in Lawrence, we do believe that our work here is rewarding and that we are making a difference in the lives of many of our patients. We hope to inspire and support residents who entered medicine with a similar vision.

Our residents are equally impressive, both academically and personally. Attracted to the health center’s mission to care for the urban underserved, our residents help renew and invigorate the faculty’s commitment. Through individual community medicine projects such as a neighborhood garden developed on a vacant lot, a literacy program to encourage reading skills in children and adults, a support group for gay, lesbian and bisexual youth, and an outreach clinic at a homeless shelter and soup kitchen, residents have had an impact in many different ways.

If you are now, or once were, committed to caring for the underserved and seek training in an academically challenging and supportive environment, we invite you to apply to our program.