Month: November 2021

Volunteer work at the Preble Street Food Pantry Oct 1^st (4 hours) and 17^th (4 hours) 8 hours total.

The clinical population for the Preble Street Food Pantry is the homeless population of Portland, Maine. This population would include adolescents, young adults, middle-aged adults, and the elderly. The primary focus of the food pantry is preparing food for breakfast, lunch, and dinner to give to the people and families in need in the greater Portland area.

There are many Social Determinants of Health that are relevant to the clinical population. Two concerns are economic stability and neighborhood and built environment. Both of these Social Determinants of Health are relevant for the clinical population because neither are stable with a homeless population. The people in need have no place to live or sleep so the neighborhood and build environments are very limited as well as their economic stability. I would advocate for these clients by helping them find homeless shelters or stable living. I would try to work with the area and clean it up to provide a safer outside environment. I would also help the clients apply for jobs to help stabilize their economic status.

Within the food pantry, everyone is working together to prepare food for the clients. One way that incorporating interprofessional collaboration could create positive outcomes for the clients is by interprofessional teamwork and team-based care (IPE Competency 4). These positive outcomes for the clients could be achieved by having a nurse or provider help give out food in the community and provide care to clients that are in health care needs. One of the most problematic issues within the homeless population is not being able to receive health care. The clients could receive health care by having health care providers tag-along with the distribution of food.

Throughout clinical this semester, I met so many welcoming and kind individuals. Each patient made a difference to me and made an impact on my clinical experience. I hope I was also able to make an impact on their lives as well. One patient that I felt I left an impact on was someone who had been at the facility for a while and did not have many supporters.

This patient has been at the care facility for a very long time and had hardly any visitors. When I was assigned this patient, my main goal was just to give them someone to talk to and spend the day with. I spent the day helping this patient with activities of daily living. They joked about the breakfast that the facility gave out and I helped clean sticky fingers from the syrup. They also allowed me to brush their hair and play cards with them. I knew that my main goal was to give them a day that was just about them. Since the patient seemed to be lonely, I strived to speak with them as much as I could throughout the day. I could tell they were greatly enjoying their time with me, and I was happy that I was easing their burden ever so slightly.

At the end of the day, I circled back around to the patient’s room. They seem to be waiting for me and I ask them how their day was going. They said that they had been waiting for me to come back to see them and were glad I stopped by again before I had left. They said that they appreciated how much time I took out of my day to spend with them and that they were so glad I was their student nurse for the day. I was happy that I had help but was sad that I couldn’t spend more time with the patient.

I did not realize how much of a difference I had made in that individual’s life until the next time I was at clinical. I was working with other patients that day but decided to stop in and say hello to them. They were extremely happy to see me and had said they had started doing some of the fun things we had done the week prior, such as playing cards. They thanked me again for spending the day with them and showing them ways to keep this situation fun. I realized that my impact on them that day had truly helped them, and I was grateful for the experience.