October was SO full of "happenings" it literally flew right by!!! Much time was spent out in partner schools teaching topics including sickle cell anemia, safe boundaries (good touch, bad touch), nutrition, substance abuse, and sexual health.
I was so fortunate to have 2 excellent M-3s from MCW to teach with me for the month. We demonstrated a "pharm" party at Vincent HS passing out Dixie cups of colored candy from a large bowl which represents all the prescription drugs kids might collect from their homes to bring to a party. The students got to see the different combinations that each one had, but Chip and Mark also addressed the different effects medications can have on different people. Then, they didn't know we had mixed in 3 odd colored candies and when we asked who had those particular ones, we announced that sadly, they would have died....
That was pretty heavy but made an important point...on a lighter note (for an equally important topic) we took turns letting the students try to walk a straight line with the drunk driving goggles. We even had the real set of pig lungs from the American Lung Association to set up our discussion of smoking.
We fit home visits in with the health education and visited a patient struggling to take care of her mother who has lung cancer while managing her own schizophrenia. We also visited one of my favorite patients, an elderly woman with the weight of the world (and all her dysfunctional relatives) on her shoulders. The next day she called to tell me our visit had made her day and lifted her spirits commenting that she had bragged to her friends at her senior citizen group that "nurse Jenny brought 2 cute young med students over and they listened to all her troubles."
October also brought the first time that Dr. Izard and I got to visit a school together. We did a session of "Ask the Doctor" for a room full of teen girls at the Silver Spring school. They asked great questions about everything ranging from swine flu to the old favorite...sex...
The month ended with a new experience at the Hmong center for women where I was asked to speak about nutrition. They were part of a group of women who have experienced domestic violence and their bravery, resilience and strength was truly inspiring.
...wonder what November holds??? I will meet 2 new mcw students tomorrow AM and we will venture out on 3 home visits. I have so lucky to have LaTonya (an M4) doing a Community Medicine elective this month and her enthusiasm has already pumped me up for another month of new experiences!
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