As a child, Sharon Stoolman, MD, joined her mom — a staff nurse at The Nebraska Medical Center — during medical outreach visits to the Open Door Mission and Salvation Army.
She continued doing healthcare outreach as a UNMC medical student, adding an eight-week trip to Zaire to work in a mission hospital. Then, she asked: “What would it take to have a UNMC-based outreach clinic, and how would it fit in the Omaha community?
Her idea led to UNMC’s student-run SHARING (Student Health Alliance Reaching Indigent Needy Groups) Clinic, which opened its doors Sept. 9, 1997, and provided low-cost medical care to 10 patients on that initial Tuesday night in South Omaha.
Nearly 30 years later, the clinics — which now stand at four — continue to make a difference with free and low-cost healthcare for Omaha-area patients. In addition, thousands of UNMC students — from medicine, pharmacy, physician assistant, nursing, medical nutrition and other disciplines — have learned to apply their knowledge while helping the community.
“The clinics are a hardwired part of the curriculum that says: ‘We give back to the community,’” said Dr. Stoolman, a pediatrician and 1999 UNMC College of Medicine graduate. “I am proud to say I wasa part of starting that.”
Supervised by healthcare professionals, UNMC’s student-run clinics consist of:
- SHARING — The first and longest-running clinic, it provides primary healthcare for adults.
- RESPECT (Responsible Early STI Prevention Education and Community Testing) — The clinic, which opened in 2001, provides free and confidential testing and treatment for sexually transmitted infections.
- VISION — Founded in 2011, the clinic provides ophthalmology services to patients who require specialty eye care.
- GOODLIFE (Greater Omaha Outreach for Diabetes Lifestyles Impacting Fitness and Education) — Founded in 2014 and restarted in 2024 after a four-year hiatus, the clinic provides all-encompassing care to individuals with diabetes.
SHARING Clinic patients receive examinations, laboratory testing, imaging, prescription medications, physical and occupational therapy, and mental health services — delivered with respect and professionalism. With a childhood shaped by humanitarian values and community volunteerism, Dr. Stoolman said the SHARING Clinics embody what it means to give back.
“SHARING is one of the things I’m most proud of in my career. I’m also grateful to everyone who has kept SHARING alive and planted seeds of volunteerism in the next generation of healthcare professionals.”
In the SHARING Clinic exhibit in the McGoogan Health Sciences Library, student volunteers highlight the clinics’ impact beyond healthcare.
From a medical student: “While making conversation with a patient, I asked, ‘Any plans for the holidays?’ She replied, ‘No, I don’t have any family in town.’ She took my hand at the end of the clinic visit and said, ‘Thank you so much for everything … The clinic has become my family.’ It was a moment when I could see the impact of this work on people’s lives.”
From a pharmacy student: “An older patient came in with her daughter, and she’d just moved to the U.S. … We helped them get health insurance so they could eventually seek care elsewhere. It’s cool to know that we can be that foundation and initial support for people in our community.”