The Falcon   |   Volume 81, Issue 26

Published 6/02/10   |   Log In

Student-led health fair aids women

Senior Alicia Stacy works the hygiene booth at the SPU nursing Health Fair downtown at the YWCA.
Photo credit: LAURA EASLEY/The Falcon.

By KATIE JOY BLANKSMA, Editor-in-Chief

Published: June 2, 2010

Sitting behind the raffle booth, senior nursing student Katie Wilner handed out tickets and called out winning numbers to the women passing through the health fair at the YWCA Angeline's Center for Homeless Women on May 26.

A woman who came up to the booth was not feeling well. She had low blood pressure and high blood sugar, Wilner said.

A friend of the woman offered to take her to the hospital, but she repeated 'No, no, no. I don't want to go,' Wilner recalled.

"That really struck me," she said. "Where do these women go when they're sick?"

For a population-based community health project, five nursing students organized a health fair that addressed homeless women's needs and provided information and resources for dental and vision services, mental illness, heart disease and hygiene, senior Annika McInnis said. The fair also supplied nutritional information, music therapy sessions and free mammograms.

The theme for the fair was "Take Control," emphasizing nutrition and women taking control of their own lives, said Naomi Johnson, a volunteer with YWCA Angeline's Center.

Wilner, McInnis, junior Rebecca Miller and seniors Alicia Stacy and Yuliya Skachkov assessed the women's specific needs; contacted vendors including Virginia Mason Hospital, the Hope Heart Institute, Union Gospel Mission Dental Services and National Alliance on Mental Illness; and partnered with students from the nutrition and music therapy disciplines.

To the right of Wilner's raffle booth sat the hygiene table, complete with 150 manicure kits donated by Paris Presents and shampoo and soap samples. McInnis and Stacey handed out informational brochures and passed out complimentary manicure kits to the women passing the booth.

"I think the most important part was that we were providing relevant information for the women that they actually wanted to hear about," McInnis said.

The students began planning the health fair early in Spring Quarter, meeting once a week, conducting a voluntary questionnaire to assess the needs of the women and soliciting donations from the SPU community to support the raffle, McInnis said.

The center serves about 300 women a day, providing meals, showers, a place to do laundry, yoga classes and permanent and transitional housing -- something to give women a stable springboard, so they can worry about other parts of their lives, Wilner said.

At the beginning of the quarter, Wilner and the other nursing students did a simulation project in which they became a homeless family and had to figure out resources for health, food, jobs and housing -- things that the women at Angeline's deal with on a daily basis, Wilner said.

"We were lucky, we had a list of places to go," she said. However, these women do not. Where do they go for housing or get work?" Wilner asked. Many of these problems are exaggerated by the fact that many people do not reach out to them, but the center does, Wilner said.

When going through the assessment phase, Wilner said the students tried to take a step back and allow the women to define their own needs, rather than basing the fair on the students' own perceptions of the women's needs.

"In order to get to the fundamental needs of a people group, they need to be the ones to tell you," Wilner said.

Students came up with a questionnaire that women at the shelter could take voluntarily while receiving a free blood pressure screening, McInnis said.

"We took the top five topics that they chose," she added.

Over 100 women filtered through the fair from booth to booth, snacking on pretzels, picking up fliers or a free toothbrush, and asking questions.

"I heard a lot of people going through say, 'Oh! I need this booth.' That was great to hear," McInnis said.

Both Wilner and MicInnis said many social stereotypes surround these women.

Often, individuals who live on the streets are not thought of as people, but as somebody who is homeless, McInnis said.

"Something that we found is that the homeless population as a whole, it's a very studied and researched population and kind of victimized through the process of it," she said.

However, being homeless comes with a lot of stresses -- not knowing where to sleep or eat and receiving glares from passersby, McInnis said.

"They often don't have a place where they can just sit and be," she said.

Four other students conducted 20 minute music therapy sessions in a neighboring room designed to give the women space and time to feel comfortable, relax, breathe and have fun, wrote senior Betsy Pinney in an e-mail.

Pinney and senior Laura Frank, who also participated in the fair, will be the first two graduates in SPU's new music therapy program.

Music therapy is a clinical and evidence based use of music that addresses the physical, social, mental, emotional, cognitive and spiritual needs of an individual, Pinney wrote.

To prepare for the fair, Pinney and Frank, along with two other music therapy students, juniors Leann Riddle and Andrew Zook, also assessed the women they would be working with, asking them about music preferences as well as gaining a better understanding of how the women interact, Pinney wrote.

At the health fair, the music therapy students wanted to create an environment that allowed them to connect with the women, she added.

"This happened through laughter, singing, music and fun," Pinney wrote. "In particular, I was able to have one of the ladies play my harp ... she had a moment ... that is all I ask, that I can give someone a moment of time to just be; to be happy, to be sad, to be relaxed. To be whatever they need to be. Music allows me to offer that gift."

Working with marginalized populations is rewarding, said Eileen Owen-Williams, professor of nursing and community health. So much of these women's existence is dependent on someone else for housing, food or medical attention.

By providing resources, "the women become empowered in their own health," she said.

YWCA Angeline's opened up their services to SPU students five years ago, when the health fair first began under Professor of Nursing Kathy Stetz, Owen-Williams said.

Planning the health fair required students to step outside of their typical nursing education and experience, Wilner said. Most of the time, nursing students focus on physical treatments, but through this health community practicum, the students incorporated another aspect of nursing that focuses on a person's well being and addresses a population's needs.

"It was a different side of nursing that we don't get all the time," Wilner said.

"I learned so much about myself," she added. "About stepping outside my comfort zone for the sake of someone else. I learned about humility -- what it truly means to see life through another person's eyes. In general, I learned more about people, which I absolutely loved."

Wilner encouraged students to find where their passions meet the needs of the world.

"It may be scary, it may be unknown, but I think through faith there are so many things that can be accomplished," Wilner said. "I found out through this quarter that really is true."

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