title: Community as client: reaching an underserved urban community and meeting unmet primary health care needs.
abstract: In a collaborative effort to address the health disparities within 1 urban underserved community, the Hunter-Bellevue School of Nursing, Hunter College, and the Mount Sinai Medical Center organized a health fair. Nursing faculty worked side by side with undergraduate nursing students to offer several health promotion activities, screening, and educational sessions for residents of East Harlem, New York. In addition, nursing students provided individual patient education on nutrition, hand washing hygiene, medication review, and glucometer usage. Educational materials on lifestyle issues (sample meals, maintaining normal blood glucose, blood pressure, cholesterol levels, and smoking cessation) were provided. To help bridge the gap between health education and health promotion activities, nursing students, many of whom were bilingual, served as translators for non-English speaking Spanish and Chinese residents. In addition to the new professional partnerships developed, new clinical placements for nursing students were established.
authors.affiliation: Hunter-Bellevue School of Nursing, The City University of New York, NY 10010, USA. jap@hunter.cuny.edu
authors.forename: Judith
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Aponte
authors.forename: Donna M
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Nickitas
mesh_terms: D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D001294:Attitude to Health; D003152:Community Health Nursing / Q000193:education / Q000458:organization & administration; D003159:Community-Institutional Relations; D003299:Cooperative Behavior; D006277:Health Fairs / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006293:Health Promotion / Q000458:organization & administration; D006301:Health Services Needs and Demand; D006786:Hospitals, Urban / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006801:Humans; D007373:Interinstitutional Relations; D008403:Mass Screening; D008507:Medically Underserved Area; D016294:Models, Nursing; D009519:New York City; D015403:Nursing Evaluation Research; D009937:Organizational Objectives; D010934:Planning Techniques; D011320:Primary Health Care / Q000458:organization & administration*; D015397:Program Evaluation; D012579:Schools, Nursing / Q000458:organization & administration*; D012648:Self Care; D019037:Urban Health Services / Q000458:organization & administration