Otis Moss Jr. Health Center

My time at Otis Moss Jr. Health Center has been great so far. I love the atmosphere at the health center. Otis Moss Jr. Health Center is unique because it incorporates both spiritual and physical health. I have been spending most of my time working with a nurse in the pediatric office. My daily duties include checking patients in for their physicals and appointments, drawing up and giving immunizations, drawing blood, performing in office lab tests and sending letters to patients and their parents regarding lab results. I also help with triage calls, nebulizer treatments and throat swabs for Strep tests. One of the things I have noticed at Otis Moss is the difference between the role of the nurse in the office compared to a nurse in the hospital. At Otis Moss, the nurse's main roles are to answer and assess triage calls, give immunizations, and perform patient teaching.

One of the projects that Jazmin, Nailah and I worked on this semester was a diabetes class. We were responsible for contacting patients, organizing educational handouts and communicating with the instructors of the course. It was great to attend the class and see how our hard work paid off. The patients were all very engaged in the class, and I think they learned a lot from our packets and the insight of the instructor.

For our main research project we decided to tackle Vitamin D deficiency and insufficiency. We found out through our research that over 50% of pediatric patients at Otis Moss are either Vitamin D deficient or insufficient. Our project focuses mostly on the education of parents to help their children gain more Vitamin D from the sun and food. As the semester winds down, I look forward to seeing if our Vitamin D education has worked and if any Vitamin D levels increase.