Monday, March 29th: Today, I finished creating the birth control spreadsheet for one of the doctors, and I found out that all 5 of the local county health departments offer IUDs, arm implants, NuvaRing, and depo shots for free to those who qualify under the income thresholds, which most of our patients do. This is amazing information for Mercy patients because many of them do already qualify for the income threshold (because they have to be low-income to be out patients), and we have a Gynecologist come twice per month so this database can be referenced to refer these patients for birth control methods. I also continued working on the COVID-19 vaccine interest database by calling 15 patients 65+ and adding them to our spreadsheet to call when our vaccine shipment arrives, as well as connect those who need assistance transitioning to Medicare with resources like My Georgia Cares counseling. I also ran 3 negative FIT tests to screen for colon cancer and triaged 4 patients. Today, I learned how valuable it is to partner with other organizations in your community to work towards the same end goal- increasing the access to healthcare for the low-income Athens residents.
1.2.2 Establish collaborative relationships and agreements that facilitate access to data
Tuesday, March 30th: Today, I triaged 3 patients and spent the majority of my day scanning documents into patient charts for my coworkers that needed some extra help. I also met with one of our patients for a blood pressure check and realized she had very high blood pressure. After the Nurse Practitioner spoke with her, I went spent some time with the patient in the room counseling her on some lifestyle changes she can make to combat her elevated blood pressure, including diet changes, exercise habits, and stress management. She was very grateful for the time I spent with her and I am excited to see how her blood pressure changes at her next visit (hopefully down a lot!). I also attended a staff meeting and heard the social work interns discuss a program called FARM, Food As Real Medicine, that we piloted on patients this past year. The program provided a group of our patients weekly nutritional groceries to combat their underlying conditions like diabetes, hypertension, or obesity, and it was wildly successful. Our staff implemented the program so well that the grant funders doubled our budget for this year and is allowing us to enroll 100 of our patients, and I am SO excited for it! I am working to identify eligible patients for the program and collaborating with the social work interns to create a group for the next cohort. Today, I learned that health promotion is everywhere, even if you don’t realize it is going on around you! I was completely unaware that this program was being executed these past couple months, but now that I know about it I am so excited to offer it as a resource to our eligible patients.
1.1.1: Define the priority population to be assessed
1.1.3: Engage priority populations, partners, and stakeholders to participate in the assessment process.
Wednesday, March 31st: Hip, hip, hooray! Today, I reached my 300 hours for the internship! I cannot believe how quickly it has gone. Although I am technically finished with the internship, I am still going to continue volunteering at mercy for 35 hours a week to gain as many patient care hours as possible, but I will not be writing blog posts on my future shifts, so today is my final post. Today, I drew the final winner of the FIT test $25 raffle and called her to let her know that she won! She was so excited and will come in this week to pick it up. I am so happy that the program was such a success, and my supervisor even decided to extend the program for another month of raffles to continue the incentive to return these tests. Throughout the month, we have received over 45 completed FIT tests and identified over 10 positive tests that we referred to a Gastroenterologists for a colonoscopy. It feels amazing knowing that I contributed greatly to the prevention of colon cancer, and it was just as simple as educating the patients on their options and applying a little pressure with the $25 incentive. I learned how rewarding it is to help patients take charge of their own health and use opportunities for prevention over treatment. This has been such a wonderful internship experience, and I am so grateful for my major pushing me to create such meaningful connections with my coworkers, patients, and volunteers at Mercy. I can’t wait to finish off the semester strong there, doing what I love with the people I love!
4.7.1: Communicate findings to priority populations, partners, and stakeholders.
7.3.9: Lead advocacy initiatives related to health
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