Nursing students in Burton Heights.
- junior nursing students offer a free blood sugar (diabetes) and blood pressure screening at SECOM during their food pantry services
- complete health assessments and provide health promotion education for residents of Alternative Directions
- teach children at both Burton and Buchanan schools healthy living topics such as nutrition, heart health, and germs and spread of infection
- worked at a flu shot clinic offering injections to very high risk children and their families.
In spring 2005, senior nursing students gave pre-diabetic children one-on-one education about nutrition, exercise and the importance of controling diabetes risk factors; teach a class to the parents and complete a home visit; work with Community Health Workers in teams to provide health education and referral information to Burton Heights residents.

2003-2004 - the 3rd year that Calvin nursing students partnered with health care providers and neighbors in Burton Heights. During the spring semester, senior nursing students partnered with Health Intervention Services (HIS) and taught a 1 ½ hour class for the community on diabetes. Students checked neighbors' blood sugar, taught them how to use a glucometer and gave them a machine if appropriate. They taught what diabetes is, possible complications, healthy diet, exercise and medications. Students also taught a similar class on hypertension. (Both diseases were identified by the community as top health concerns.) Students took neighbors blood pressure and explained the importance of consistent treatment and adopting a heart healthy lifestyle. Students work to be very culturally sensitive. Two power point programs are shown one in English and one in Spanish. We also have a Spanish interpreter to help assure that the learners understand the information being taught. Students even bring in healthy snacks that are consistent with the Hispanic diet.

Pre-Diabetic Child Connection developed as a partnership among Burton school, Burton health clinic, high risk pre-diabetic children in the school, their families and nursing students. Nursing students were paired with a pre-diabetic child generally in 5th to 8th grade. The pair met for 30 - 45 minutes weekly for 5 weeks. Nursing students taught them about diabetes, why they are at risk, and the health risks if they do not adapt a healthy lifestyle (such as blindness, loss of sensation in extremities, amputation, kidney dialysis, and altered sexual function). Students also worked on healthy diet and fun ways to exercise. A class (similar to the description above) was offered for the children and their parents at the end of the 5 weeks. Students offered excellent health information, but also important parenting tips on how to motivate and monitor the behavior of their middle school child. The final aspect of this pilot was a home visit with the child and their family. Students often described this as one of the most meaningful moments. Families invited extended family, friends and neighbors to listen to the education that was reviewed. Nursing students encouraged the child to participate in the teaching which demonstrated their understanding of the material and their interest in making healthy changes. Families were very appreciative and complimentary of these visits. After the first 5 week session, a nurse in the clinic excitedly shared with us that a mother called and asked, "What did you do to my daughter?" She said that her daughter had changed her eating habits, was exercising more frequently and had lost weight. This pilot has been an affirmative partnership that has been positively evaluated. We hope to integrate this into a research study in the spring of 2005.

TCommunity Health Worker program (CHW) is a partnership with 5 dedicated neighbors from Burton Heights. These individuals were selected for their commitment, leadership, communication ability (Spanish bilingual preferred) and their knowledge of the people and culture of the neighborhood. CHW's were paid a small stipend from the Community Outreach Partnership Center (COPC) grant.

Two students and a CHW are grouped into teams and they meet weekly for two hours. They walked from home to home in the CHW's neighborhood asking neighbors if they had any health needs or questions that they could assist with. An amazing number of folks welcomed the teams in to talk about their concerns. Issues discussed included poor access to health care, no insurance, breast lump, depression, asthma, diabetes, high blood pressure and child development concerns. Students would listen to problem, assess further, then research and find more information about it. The next week the team would return and offer the health education or resources. Neighbors were grateful for the teaching, but even more valuable was the building of trust and relationships with families. Calvin nurses are recognized on these streets to be respectful, compassionate, health advocates.

Students and CHW were asked to prepare a somewhat larger teaching project for a family or group of neighbors. This was also well received. Health topics included diabetes education for a deaf mute 32 year old male, depression screening and treatment, eating disorders and hypertension. Students were immersed in this very diverse culture and looked to their CHW for their expertise. An example of an unusual cultural health patterns was treating asthma with tea made form a dried skunk heart and ground armadillo shell. Community work is never boring!

Nursing students evaluated this program to be very beneficial to their understanding of clients, their lifestyle and the barriers to seeking and obtaining quality health care. They learned not only from the neighbors they visited, but also form the CHWs themselves. The CHWs also evaluated the program as being very beneficial in "reaching neighbors where they are at" and for their personal growth. We hope to expand this program to three hours per week next spring. Hopefully we will receive grant funding to continue paying the CHW for their valuable services. We have also discussed the possibility of expanding it for fall 2005 so we have continuity with these invaluable CHWs.

Another integral part of the nursing students experience in Burton Heights is the development and implementation of the Strategic Community Health Plan. All of our nursing activities are directed by the interventions outlined in the plan. We met with the neighborhood health providers and residents to discuss our ongoing work and evaluation. We plan to conduct our follow up survey in the neighborhood spring 2005 and compare this data to the survey done 2002. Our hope is that we will begin to see improvements in the benchmark health outcomes. (Renae Boss Potts, RN)

Calvin nursing students spend 5 weeks working with Burton Heights health care providers and residents in their Junior year and 7 weeks in their senior year. They teach classes for Burton and Buchanan school students and their families on issues such as diabetes and hypertension and work with individual families, helping them connect with health care resources and information. They provide blood pressure screenings and foot care presentations among other things to Burton Heights seniors. The students also work closely with Community Health Workers to help provide a sustainable link between the neighborhood and health care opportunities. For more information about these or other projects worked on through the Calvin nursing department see the article in the Winter 2004 Mosiac newsletter.

The Calvin nursing department and the Center for Social Research have helped to develop a Strategic Health Plan for the Burton Heights area. The plan has been adopted by the Burton Heights neighborhood and added to the Burton Heights Plan. Take a look at the Burton Heights Plan to find out more about what is happening in the neighborhood on topics relating to health, housing, traffic, language, and crime and safety.

An anti-violence/anti-bullying task force is being assembled by Amy Tompkins from the Burton Health Clinic and Karyn Pelon, a health educator from the Kent County Health Department.

Calvin's new community-based nursing program officially began in the fall of 2002, but for all practical purposes was operating earlier that year when nursing students spent every Tuesday and Wednesday of the spring semester in Burton Heights schools and clinics, conducting surveys and providing lessons on nutrition, oral health, sleep, and asthma.

Gail Zandee, community partnership development consultant for the Calvin nursing department, developed the program in which nursing students begin a four semester community-based nursing experience in their junior year. She reviews imput from residents of the neighborhood and from health care providers in order to know which resources effectively match the needs of the community. Community-based nursing means seeing individuals and families in the context of their neighborhoods.