Health fair, one day away!

These past few days have been absolutely unforgettable! They have been jam packed with resident interviews, trips to SONIC, bourbon street in New Orleans, tent preparations and rescue, and most importantly a visit from Congressman Gene Taylor of Mississippi and publicizing and preparing for our health fair!
During our door to door interviews with my SP2 partner, I have continued to encounter amazing people with amazing stories. We have been able to identify many health needs of the community throughout our case finding. It is such a rewarding feeling to be down here and helping such an underserved population. Although health disparities and culturally competent care are constantly reinforced in our Penn nursing curriculum, it is wonderful to be able to incorporate all of this knowledge into clinical practice! I spoken to a retired engineer who describe all of the technicalities of the waves and flooding of hurricane Katrina. Although most of this information was way over my nursing focused brain, it was very interesting to hear his insights and this conversation opened the door to his Katrina story. We were able to assess his stress level and make suggestions to improve his mental health. We also spoke to the husband of one of the local school teachers. His perspective on the devastation of Katrina was very different than other findings. He stated that his wife had major loss and grief related to the loss of the local school. Not only did the residents lose their home and belongings, but many lost another part of their lives, their sense of community. Many residents shared frustrations about the lack of a local school for their children. Because of damages suffered by the local school (which is actually now the Pearlington Recovery center where we are staying), the school was not rebuilt and local children were sent to a school in another town, which is about 45 minutes away! Can you imagine being a 6 year old kindergarten student and waking up at 6 am to catch the bus and get to school on time?
After our hard days of work, we were rewarded by a trip to SONIC (it really does exist!) and a tour of New Orleans and a fun night on Bourbon street.
We also have committed a lot of time and effort into our wonderful health fair tent. I was actually assigned the task of power washing some of the dirt off of the inside of the tent. It was quite the experience! Also, after a tornado watch and very heavy thunderstorms and downpours, we had a huge rescue effort to save the tent! Water accumulated on top of the tent and using brooms, rakes, mops, and anything else we could find we removed water and pressure from the tent and it survived the storm!
Yesterday, Congressman Gene Taylor visited the Pearlington Recovery Center and shared his personal story about losing his home in the Hurricane. This was a very moving experience. He narrated about his first return to survey the damage of his house; he had to travel by boat and floated along to find that his entire street had been destroyed. He also spoke of local organizations and government involvement in Katrina relief. We also talked to newspaper and television reports and made the 10 pm news and a story in the local newspaper today!
And tomorrow is our health fair! Today, all of the nursing students worked on research and education materials to provide information to the participants of the health fair. We have 15 different local organizations who will be attending the health fair. The nursing school plans to set up a health screening booth and screen for hypertension, diabetes and cholesterol. We also have ready information about healthy diets, diabetes and blood sugar management, stress relief, sleep, smoking cessation and much more! All of the SP2 students plan to educate and screen residents' mental health and offer suggestions to relieve stress, how to manage a healthy diet and information about local mental health resources. The engineers and geology boys will educate about water purification and education about safe water in the area. The dental school will also perform health screenings to local residents. We hope for a wonderful turnout and to meet the expectations of our residents! We are confident that it will be a success!
Thanks for reading and all of your support, Gina