Reaching the final week at CCBH

As I see the near end of my capstone experience here at Cuyahoga County Board of Health (CCBH), I feel somewhat regretful that I did not do enough outreach, home visits, and more involvement with a variety of projects that expands beyond nursing to community health and environmental science. However, in the end, I can say confidently that I had a fruitful and rewarding capstone experience where I gained a deep insight and greater understanding to the role public health plays to meet the needs of the community. I was able to reflect on my nursing practice, personal and professional view and values. My perception of public health dramatically expanded and my time here allowed me to have a greater appreciate for this field of nursing. I felt encouraged, knowing that there are passionate individuals who works in public health with the pure purpose to meet the needs of the community.

My group and I attended HIP-C (Health Improvement Partnership Cuyahoga) meeting and observed the attendees discussing the Forces of Change Assessment. We got involved with designated groups as reporters -- I was assigned to the technological group. I was amazed by the intricate process and the level of interdisciplinary group effort to identify the trends, factors, and events, as well as the downfalls and opportunities created. I was encouraged by the collaborative effort to increase the quality of health care for the residents of Cuyahoga County, and truly make a difference. 

We did our Tri-C outreach -- coincidentally, it was during Student Orientation, so we had a frequent flow of new students going to the Counseling Office -- our booth was located right next to the entrance of the office. We continued to man a booth with condoms and informational resources (tri-fold, handouts, pamphlets, business card for the clinic, etc). We also gave away a goodie bag, filled with a condom, pocket-sized handouts, and information about sexual health topics such as STDs. It was an interesting experience because of the interactions I had with a variety of people and their curiously with our outreach effort. I have noticed that females were more willing to talk with us, ask questions, and voice their curiosity and interest with the services that Family Planning Clinic offers for free or low-cost. The males were more interested in the free condoms; although, there were a few older men (fathers) who wanted to know more about the clinic and/or took the pamphlet about sex talk with the youth. More so, I was pleased with some of the people's response and their earnest interest to check out the Family Planning Clinic at CCBH. After all our efforts to doing outreach in the community (Lakewood) and Tri-C West, I am glad to see that we were able to reach our target of increasing the awareness of the Family Planning Clinic and of the Medicaid Waiver.