Kensington is the epicenter of the US opioid epidemic; outdoor drug use, wound care, fentanyl
North Philly — concentrated poverty, lead exposure, food insecurity, violence
"North Philadelphia is one of the most economically distressed urban areas in the Northeast. Drexel is embedded in that community. Our students see poverty and health inequity not as a concept but as the patient in front of them."
Vietnamese, Cambodian, Haitian, West African communities; large immigrant Philadelphia
Philadelphia has active LGBTQ+ community; Drexel serves and trains students in gender-affirming care
Drexel faculty active in harm reduction advocacy; abscess care for PWID, naloxone, needle exchange
PA expanded Medicaid (2015); gaps for undocumented; complex managed care navigation
Kensington encampments, homeless health, housing as healthcare
North/West Philadelphia racial health gap; redlining legacy; lead in Black neighborhoods
Gun violence, community trauma, Drexel trauma center at Hahnemann legacy site
Maternal health, reproductive justice, OBGYN access in North Philadelphia
Kensington patient with active SUD, abscess care without requiring sobriety, wound care ethics.
Vietnamese or Haitian Philadelphia patient, language access, cultural health beliefs, trauma history.
Gender-affirming care, trans health, PrEP, navigating coverage for LGBTQ+ patients.
Homeless patient care, encampment health, housing first model, continuity in unstable housing.
Philadelphia or urban community ties, harm reduction philosophy, LGBTQ+ experience, why Drexel.
"Scenarios draw from Drexel's North Philadelphia context: Kensington opioid crisis, large Southeast Asian and Caribbean immigrant communities, LGBTQ+ health, and the uninsured working poor navigating Pennsylvania's healthcare patchwork."
"You are a Drexel student on a community health clerkship in Kensington, Philadelphia. A 34-year-old woman with active fentanyl use disorder presents with an infected injection site abscess. She is living in a tent encampment, refuses inpatient treatment, but agrees to have the abscess drained today. What is your approach to this encounter?"
Practice this scenario with AI →Drexel is adjacent to this community and students train within it.
Philadelphia has substantial Southeast Asian and West African communities that are core to Drexel's clinical context.
Drexel has formal training in gender-affirming care and LGBTQ+ health.
"In 14 years of examining I have never failed a candidate for giving the 'wrong' answer. I have failed candidates for how they treated the person in the room with them."
Kensington Avenue in North Philadelphia is the epicenter of the US fentanyl epidemic. Outdoor drug markets, encampments, and overwhelmed emergency services define the landscape.
Drexel students rotate through community health programs serving Kensington. Harm reduction philosophy — meeting patients where they are — is not optional; it is the clinical standard in this setting.
Know what a syringe services program does, why naloxone distribution saves lives, and why low-barrier wound care for PWID reduces mortality.
Harm reduction is the public health approach of reducing the harms of drug use without requiring abstinence. It is supported by decades of evidence and endorsed by the CDC, WHO, and every major medical organization.
The patient who refuses treatment but accepts wound care is giving you a clinical opening — meet them there. Every encounter is an opportunity to build trust.
Know the Philadelphia safe injection site debate — Safehouse project, federal law constraints, and the evidence for supervised consumption sites.
South Philadelphia's Vietnamese community, West Philadelphia's West African communities, and the growing Haitian and Central American communities in North Philadelphia are core Drexel patient populations.
Language access is not just Spanish at Drexel — Vietnamese, French (Haitian Creole), Yoruba, and other languages require professional interpreters.
Refugee health has specific clinical knowledge requirements: tropical disease screening, hepatitis B, interrupted immunizations, trauma-related disorders.
Kensington wound care station. Woman with abscess, refuses inpatient, living outside. They wanted harm reduction framework — do the wound care, don't lecture, leave the door open.
Drexel LGBTQ+ station was about gender-affirming care and insurance coverage barriers. Know the clinical AND the policy dimension.
They asked about Safehouse (the proposed safe injection site). Know both sides — the public health evidence and the legal/community concerns. They weren't testing my position; they were testing my reasoning.