My Clinical Experience

Flint, Michigan was a town once filled with a working Middle class and a booming economy but now has a high poverty level and an economy that is close to nonexistent, leaving the town to switch water sources to the local river because it reduced cost. When we were asked to research, and hold a class discussion on the situation going on I was excited to hear fellow classmate’s opinions because I was aware of was going on. Although, I knew about the situation in Flint and could infer that this would have some major effects on the people in the town researching more opened my eyes to many community problems that affect the population's health tremendously. Switching the water supply to reduce costs exposed the residents to high levels of lead …show more content…
It helped me see the change in Healthcare delivery that is going on. During my days with the Bethel Visiting Nurse’s Association, I was about to dive into community-based nursing. I learned a major component of this type of nursing is Interpersonal communication. I feel as though communication in a core skill you need in nursing, but especially in community nursing. When you have to walk into someone’s house which is usually someone’s very personal space it is valuable to know how to approach and speak to make the patient feel comfortable. I learned that visiting is a complex part of nursing. Their nurses help the community by hosting events like blood pressure clinics, but they also help their patients they see individually. All by working with doctors, the hospital wound clinics and their fellow nurses. Although realizing communication might be the most beneficial thing as a public health nurse because it helps build rapport, a major take away from my clinical experience was seeing patients outside a hospital setting and in their home or school. As a nursing student doing clinical in the hospital we educate patients on what they need to do when they get home but we don’t really factor in much of the home life. When we do factor in home life its all hypothetically based and I’ve never seen a patient outside of the acute care setting. After going through this rotation, I feel like it will help me give better care to my patients. I will not just assess the patient inside the hospital but find out about their home life and what obstacles they might face when they are home. When visiting I saw simple problems that could have been fixed. For example, a patient was not sent home with enough wound care supplies to hold her over till the ones she ordered came in. If the nurse factored in the patient couldn’t get to order the wound care supplies until she got home because of