Removing Barriers to Health Care: Healthy Starts for New Americans

Objectives: • To determine if refugees completing a Medical Orientation Program for New Americans are better with several aspects of medicine in the US, such as making appointments; knowing more about diet and hygiene; and understanding the implications of mental and chronic illnesses. • To determine if Medical Passports provided to these individuals to improve continuity of care are useful and effective. • To make recommendations for improvements to the Medical Orientation Program for New Americans to the Community Health Center of Burlington (CHCB).https://scholarworks.uvm.edu/comphp_gallery/1052/thumbnail.jp

Assessing Barriers to Healthy Food Access in Winooski, VT

Introduction: • The local food environment plays an important role in defining the health of the neighborhood and is an important determinant of resident’s dietary intakes. • Specifically, food availability, affordability, and accessibility have been linked to diet quality and various health outcomes. • Fresh fruits and vegetables are markers for nutritional diets. Grocery stores and super markets tend to have better quality fruits and vegetables, greater variety and better affordability than convenient stores that tend to have more prepared and higher calorie foods. • People who live in neighborhoods with better access to supermarkets tend to have a greater daily intake of fruits and vegetables. • Increased distance from supermarkets is negatively associated with healthy food intake in a study of pregnant women. • “Food deserts” are areas that are devoid of a local supermarket where residents have a limited ability to purchase affordable healthy foods. They have become an emergent problem in the United States. This paucity of supermarkets in these areas combined with lack of private or convenient transportation among poorer residents may contribute to health disparities across socioeconomic classes. • The town of Winooski, VT has a population of 7,267. Although there are local food markets and convenient stores within the town, Winooski lacks a larger grocery store. • Insufficient public transportation and inadequate pedestrian sidewalks make it more difficult for residents to access supermarkets located in other towns.https://scholarworks.uvm.edu/comphp_gallery/1078/thumbnail.jp

A reflection on culture over time by baccalaureate nursing students

The aim of this retrospective descriptive study was to compare students'reflective responses to a set question 18 months apart to determine if their understanding of nurses' commitment to serve all clients regardless of age, gender, religious affiliation, or racial origin changed. One hundred and twenty six reflections (63 pairs) were thematically analysed.Three themes were developed: equal treatment; commitment to serve all clients; and 'it's not easy'. Cultural competency, although not yet fully operationalized in the nursing profession, is a developmental process that goes across time. It is also more than learning about other cultures

Service learning

Students in clinical placements are expected to acquire skills, solve problems, and prepare for future employment in professional fields. Many courses also require students to reflect on their practice-what went well, what did not, and how practice could be improved for the future. Experiential learning and reflection are two of the components of service learning. The involvement of the agency as a true partner in the meeting of agency needs and student learning adds the third component. The focus must be on both the students and the recipients of care in partnership (Bailey, Carpenter, & Harrington, 2002). That is, meeting community needs, students' learning objectives, and formal reflection on the experience are the components of service learning. This chapter describes the use of service learning in the health professions

Use of health fairs to develop public health nursing competencies

This paper describes a community-campus partnership for health education established through the effort of faculty, students, and the community. Health fairs designed to address issues of concern to a community agency were originally conducted with nursing students. This partnership between nursing and a community was expanded to include social work, physical therapy, and medical students. A shared learning experience was structured through the presentation of health fairs in collaboration with agencies in Burlington, Vermont. One goal of nursing education is to produce professionals who have the beginning competencies of public health nursing. Reflection on the process, relationships, and outcomes of the health fairs revealed that students attained these beginning competencies in all eight public health nursing competency domains. Combining community-campus partnerships and an interdisciplinary focus enabled nursing students to become more responsive to community needs and to learn to work collaboratively toward creating healthier communities, thus building skills required for public health nursing

Ethical photography while on study abroad

Study abroad in nursing education has grown exponentially over the past decade. The literature has a myriad of articles on the influence this type of travel has had on the personal and professional lives of nurses and nursing students as well as on the ‘‘how-to’’ of study abroad. A search of CINAHL for study abroad will yield more than 110 articles. The value of study abroad in nursing has been well established. What is not discussed in any of these articles is ethical photography while on the study abroad trips

Does study abroad enhance cultural competency in a baccalaureate nursing program?

Background: In today's global environment, nurses must be prepared to meet the needs of people from diverse backgrounds. The Essentials for Baccalaureate Education and the Public Health Nursing Competencies contain requirements for cultural competencies. Integrating cultural concepts is dependent on faculty, and influenced by content-crowded curricula and pressure to prepare students for licensure. Two related studies seek to begin an evaluation process by first determining if students learn cultural competency in the current curriculum and the effect of a study abroad experience. Methods: Study One, a longitudinal survey, examines where in the curriculum students learn cultural competency. Study Two investigates how a study abroad immersion experience adds to cultural competency through thematically analyzing reflective journals. The travel students will be compared to non-travel students to determine if there are significant differences to their cultural competency. Results: The longitudinal survey data indicate that students appear highly confident of their own skills but as they progress from junior to senior level, they seem to reevaluate their competence downwards. Analysis of the journals shows that study abroad made students aware of themselves as a privileged group. Data analysis to compare the travel from non-travel students is underway. Conclusion: Jirwe and her colleagues (2009) noted that nurses need to develop an understanding of their own cultural identity before being able to approach people from a different culture. It is hoped that results of these studies will assist in curriculum development and strategies for students to ensure cultural competency preparation

Cancer in Western Australian Indian Families: concerns and coping strategies

Discussion with families of Indian clients with cancer living in Western Australia and their anecdotal reports of stress related to care lead to the development of this descriptive, qualitative study. In particular, the study addresses the concerns of Western Australian families of Indian clients with cancer and the coping strategies they employed. Six family members participated in face-to-face interviews. Content analysis revealed a four-phase process that family members described in response to the cancer diagnosis: initial reactions, immediate concerns, ongoing concerns, and coping strategies used. Culturally-specific observations and recommendations are offered for nursing practice and further research

Seeing with new eyes : the meaning of an immersion experience in Bangladesh for undergraduate senior nursing students

Nurses must provide culturally appropriate care. A powerful strategy to enhance cultural competency is immersion. This can increase awareness of personal beliefs, values, behaviors, and learning from clients. A three week immersion experience for 17 senior undergraduate nursing students was organized in partnership with the Independent University, Bangladesh. Working with interpreters, students learned about people and healthcare through interviews and site visits. The purpose of this qualitative study was to discover the meaning of the immersion experience for nursing students through their reflective journals. These were thematically analyzed and four themes emerged: Beginning to See, Thinking about the Seen, Wanting to Change the Seen, and Transformed by the Seen. These themes combine into a framework that has been tentatively titled, Seeing Through New Eyes and will be further developed on future trips. Achieving cultural competency is a complex, long-term process that can be intensified with immersion experiences

The roots of nursing:teaching caring based on Watson

Caring is the root of nursing. Therefore, care must be a core component of any nursing programme. Watson (1985) developed 10 carative factors that she considers central to the caring process. These carative factors, which `form a structure for studying and understanding nursing as the science of caring\u27 (Watson 1985), shaped a unit of study at a School of Nursing in a tertiary institution in Western Australia. This paper describes how Watson\u27s carative factors were used as a framework for teaching caring to Semester I undergraduate students