Street Doctor
How MED’s Jim O’Connell learned to shelve his stethoscope and listen
Jim O’Connell has spent his medical career as a street doctor, caring for homeless people on the sidewalks, benches, and bridges where they live. O’Connell, president of the Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program and a member of the BU School of Medicine faculty, had originally planned a career in oncology, but after completing medical school at Harvard and a residency at Massachusetts General Hospital, he decided to work for a year at a handful of health clinics for the homeless at places like Boston’s Long Island Shelter and the Pine Street Inn. “After four years of medical school and three years of residency, I had thought my training was finally over,” writes O’Connell in his memoir, Stories from the Shadows: Reflections of a Street Doctor (BHCHP Press, 2015). “My education in homelessness and poverty was just beginning.”
O’Connell talks about slowing down and opening up, and how losing his stethoscope made him a better doctor.
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