Part 1: Experiential Nursing Hours
Service Learning
Milestone Clinic (Orientation only)- 1 hr on 9/21 over Zoom
Prebble Street – 3 hr on 11/12 at the Central Street Kitchen
CECE events
Transforming Racial Lines 1 hr on 9/22 at the Portland Campus
Restraints and Seclusions in Maine Schools: We Can Do Better 1 hr 30 min on 11/10 over Zoom
Change Agents: Fostering Health Equity and Social Justice 1 hr 30 min on 11/17 over Zoom
Total: 8 hrs
Part 2: Priority Focus
Milestone’s priority focus is on providing safe drug rehabilitation and detox services to people. They also run services providing needed items to homeless people, meeting them where they are.
Prebble street prioritizes focus on the access of food in low income in homeless communities
Transforming Racial lines focused on having conversations to build better interracial relationships.
Restraints and Seclusions focused on how children, particularly those with intellectual disabilities are inappropriately restrained as a method of control
Change Agents focused on system changes as a whole but that can be applied to different groups like POC and the LGBTQ community.
Part 3: Social Determinants of health:
Homeless population (Prebble Street and Milestone): Healthcare Access and Quality, Economic Stability
I can be an advocate by participating in needed good drives or organizing my own. These drives usually look for common items like socks and matches them with a homeless shelter or other organization to distribute them. We can all be advocates by treating them like human beings.
BIPOC (Transforming Racial Lines and Change Agents) Social and Community Context, Neighborhood and Built Environment
I can be an advocate by amplifying BIPOC voices, and other people with lived experiences. Change agents brought up an interesting point that if you are looking for a certain result it is better to focus on the culture (the community/neighborhood) and work on influencing the culture of change rather than just on a certain result.
Children with intellectual disabilities (Restraints and Seclusions) – Education Access and Quality, Social and Community Context
I can be an advocate by requesting de-escalation training for teachers in my local schools. We learned in the presentation that a lot of de-escalation practices comes into effect to late to be of any use to the child- that anytime you have to touch a child you have gone past de-escalation and entered a crisis. Requesting better training would protect both teachers and students.
Part 4: Interprofessional collaboration
Interprofessional collaboration between social workers and physicians could help the homeless population get better access to healthcare. A physician might want to help the homeless population, but he or she might be aiming at the wrong direction. Social workers often have a better idea of the needs of their clients and can coordinate the right resources to get the word out. IPE Competency is Interprofessional teamwork and team-based care.
All types of health professionals can help implement change and support social justice issues for POC and the LGBT community. In ethics last year we looked at the nursing code of ethics and saw that as nurses we have an ethical responsibility to advocate for social justice. Because social justice issues need to be addressed on every level, from systemic to interpersonal, daily interactions healthcare providers have with minorities have a way to help or hurt the work advocates and change agents do.
Occupational therapists and psychologists can work with teachers and learning specialists to provide better foundational knowledge and training for working with children with intellectual disabilities. Although teachers aren’t considered healthcare providers, I think they would be an invaluable member on an interprofessional team in this case because of how much time they spend with students.
