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Volunteers needed: Poverty simulator teaches health care trainees burdens of financial status

Written by: Jaimy Jones | Updated: February 28, 2023

Students at UTHealth Houston participate in a poverty simulator exercise where they learn firsthand how financial hardships can affect access to health care. (Photo courtesy of UTHealth Houston School of Public Health)
Students at UTHealth Houston participate in a poverty simulator exercise where they learn firsthand how financial hardships can affect access to health care. (Photo courtesy of UTHealth Houston School of Public Health)

UTHealth Houston School of Dentistry and Cizik School of Nursing at UTHealth Houston are seeking volunteers for three interprofessional poverty simulations taking place in March and April.

Dates for the simulations are Friday, March 3; Wednesday, April 26; and Friday, April 28, with each taking place from 1 to 4 p.m. in the Denton A. Cooley, MD and Ralph C. Cooley, DDS University Life Center.

Simulation volunteers will be assigned identities that represent the spectrum of those who experience financial hardships. Examples include having jobs that don’t support their family needs, needing to care for a child or other family member, or having health problems that can be costly in terms of time lost from work or expenses of care. Volunteers travel from table to table, paying appropriate bills, and managing chronic health conditions, all while making their dollars last to the next table.

“At UTHealth Houston, we hope our health professions trainees who go through the poverty simulator will come out of it realizing that poverty simulator is reality, and they are empowered to make a difference for their patients,” said Theresa Q. Tran, MD, MBA, associate vice president for Clinical Population Health and Advocacy at UTHealth Houston.

Tran, who is also assistant professor of emergency medicine with McGovern Medical School at UTHealth Houston and assistant professor of management, policy, and community health at UTHealth Houston School of Public Health, said health professionals will learn how to connect their patients with resources that could help them manage their health care or other essential needs, whether in or outside the health care system.

Enrollment is limited to 80 participants for each session, and closes on the morning of the event.

The event is open to all UTHealth Houston employees and trainees.

  • Register for the March 13 simulator online.
  • Register for the April 26 simulator online.
  • Register for the April 28 simulator online.

Watch the video to see how this simulator teaches health trainees to see the real-world effects of poverty.

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