How to Volunteer
At this time, the Brooklyn Free Clinic only accepts volunteers who are currently professionally licensed to provide medical care (MD, PA, NP, and RN) or students in
Interested volunteers who already hold any of the professional degrees listed above should contact our Chief Communicating Officer, David Cole(david.cole@downstate.edu).
If you are interested in volunteering and are currently a student at one of SUNY Downstate's various health professional colleges, carefully read and follow the instructions below:
All volunteer students at the Brooklyn Free Clinic are enrolled in a NOT-FOR-CREDIT elective via the registrar office (committee members NOT included). Upon completion of all requirements, a notice of elective completion is made to the student's academic record. In special cases, outstanding volunteers will receive a letter from the Medical Director to their academic record.
Interested student volunteers should download and complete the volunteer registration form. Then email the form to michael.obrien@downstate.edu with the subject heading:
In the body of the email please include any dates in the next six months for which you know you will NOT be available.
Scheduling for shifts is done on a "semi-annual" basis (Term 1 = Oct.1 - April 30, Term 2 = May 1 - Sept. 30). In September, shifts for MS1, MS2 and CHRP students are assigned randomly for the entire term. Accommodations are made to ensure that clinic volunteering does not interfere with students' exam schedules. There is a brief period of time (2 weeks) when students may swap their shifts with other clinic volunteers (a message board on Prime will be provided for this purpose). After this swap period is closed the official schedule will be posted and volunteers will be required to attend their assigned shifts. NOTE: The schedule that is posted in September covers the entire period from Oct.1 - April 30! Please mark your calenders accordingly and arrange to be free during your scheduled time. Personal emergencies and other considerations can be addressed on a case by case basis with the scheduling officer, but be aware that changing the schedule is a difficult and time intensive task. Please do not ask to rearrange your schedule unless it is absolutely necessary. In order to best serve our patients we must be fully staffed every time we are open, regardless of the academic calender.
MS1, MS2 and CHRP volunteers are required to attend at least two 4 hour shifts per semi-annual term. Each shift is four hours long. One shift must fulfill administrative responsibilities, the other may be as part of a clinical team (participating in direct patient care) if appropriate training has been fulfilled. Please note, due to the high volume of interest in volunteering at the Brooklyn Free Clinic, not all students who are interested in volunteering may be assigned a shift in the first term that they register. There are still plenty of other, very important ways to be involved in the Brooklyn Free Clinic other than doing actual clinical shifts, such as getting involved in one of our many committees (see constitution for committee descriptions). Students who volunteer on committees will be given preference for being assigned clinical shifts in the following semi-annual term.
MS3 and MS4 students are always assigned to be part of clinical teams and do not have any administrative shift requirements. The MS3 and MS4 schedules are created based around volunteers' individual rotation schedules. More information on MS3 and MS4 shift scheduling will be available soon. Please note, MS3 and MS4 students should include as complete a schedule as possible about their rotations, Step 1 and Step 2 exam dates, and residency interview schedules with their registration form when they register to volunteer with the Brooklyn Free Clinic.
Download the Registration Form
For more information, please e-mail Shunpei Okochi at HRChair@brooklynfreeclinic.org.
