Submitted by: June Crandall, Contributing Author
I ended Part 3 of this series discussing getting started with planning meetings, roles and responsibilities and clinic dates. And, I stated that I would talk about community engagement, advertisement and supplies needed to run the clinics.
In terms of community engagement, we discussed the best location to hold the clinics. I am President of the Elgin Seniors Club so I could speak to the availability of the Elgin Seniors Center being the best location for the clinics. I brought my proposal to the Seniors Club; all members agreed to hold the Screening Clinics at the Seniors Center. I needed their buy-in before taking the next steps to reach out to the community at large. I communicated to the Elgin Women’s Institute, who have a large presence in our community, and members heartily agreed this kind of clinic would be very helpful to our community.
I ended Part 3 of this series discussing getting started with planning meetings, roles and responsibilities and clinic dates. And, I stated that I would talk about community engagement, advertisement and supplies needed to run the clinics.
In terms of community engagement, we discussed the best location to hold the clinics. I am President of the Elgin Seniors Club so I could speak to the availability of the Elgin Seniors Center being the best location for the clinics. I brought my proposal to the Seniors Club; all members agreed to hold the Screening Clinics at the Seniors Center. I needed their buy-in before taking the next steps to reach out to the community at large. I communicated to the Elgin Women’s Institute, who have a large presence in our community, and members heartily agreed this kind of clinic would be very helpful to our community.
The team met virtually late in 2023 and for three months where we identified specific roles for each member of the team and to set a date and time to launch the first Adult Health Screening Clinic. We talked about how individuals attending the screening clinics would keep track of the results of their screenings. We also talked about how well the first clinic would be attended and received by the community. Two key outcomes of those discussion resulted in, 1) clinic attendees would receive upon “registering” for the clinic, and 2) we decided to develop a questionnaire to be able to capture the number of attendees, determine why the came to the clinic, and what they would like to see in their community going forward. This information was vitally important to our Provincial sponsors and supporters – Horizon Health Network (HHN). They have proven to be very supportive to this community effort; rural/sub-rural health care is a challenge, and we were willing to do our part for the greater good.
With that, we were operationally on track. The UNB Nursing Director worked with her advisors and leadership to determine the role of the student nurses, and what services they would be able to provide as students in the UNB Nursing program in Moncton. Because they were registered nursing students, there were limitations in the types and invasiveness of the screening they could provide. In the next instalment of this series of articles, I will list these services. Additionally, I will list the types of questions we asked the clinic attendees. Moreover, we addressed supplies needed to run the screening clinics. These include blood glucose monitoring, heart rate and oxygen saturation monitors, health education and resources, etc. What about privacy? What about a waiting space for community members? Follow me as I delve more into getting the clinics fully operational to include promoting this to the community.
With that, we were operationally on track. The UNB Nursing Director worked with her advisors and leadership to determine the role of the student nurses, and what services they would be able to provide as students in the UNB Nursing program in Moncton. Because they were registered nursing students, there were limitations in the types and invasiveness of the screening they could provide. In the next instalment of this series of articles, I will list these services. Additionally, I will list the types of questions we asked the clinic attendees. Moreover, we addressed supplies needed to run the screening clinics. These include blood glucose monitoring, heart rate and oxygen saturation monitors, health education and resources, etc. What about privacy? What about a waiting space for community members? Follow me as I delve more into getting the clinics fully operational to include promoting this to the community.
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