One month in.

Savannah is absolutely beautiful. I feel so blest that I am able to spend a year in such an incredible city. After a month of settling in, I finally decided I needed some way to communicate what I am experiencing to all of my family and friends. I am especially known for not being very good at expressing what I am going through, especially when it is difficult to convey in words. I sometimes feel that if I can't express something it is just better for me to keep it to myself.. sounds silly, but that's how I work. So I am so excited to be able to keep everyone uptodate on everything through writing this blog! I will primarily be writing this to explain the work that I will be doing here this year.
So I work at St. Mary's Health Center. This health center is funded primarily by grants and is run by St. Joseph's/Candler Health System. This enables the clinic to receive a lot of free work and helps it stay alive. It is a clinic for the people of Chatham county without health insurance. All of these people are below the 200% poverty line. (If you don't know what that means check it out - it is difficult to explain, but essentially it is very poor.) The clinic is by appointment only, which I am finding is necessary. Seeing that people still walk in wanting help that we cannot provide. There is only one full time practicioner at the health center and she is a NP (nurse practicioner) named Judy. She is AWESOME! There are two part time NP's and one physician who is the medical director, but currently only sees patients once a week. Needless to say Judy has her hands full. We are desperately praying and on the hunt for another full time provider. There are two medical assistants - Maggie and Shantel. We also have a respiratory therapist named Theresa. Several volunteers work the front desk and help out with all the paper work. Then there is Stephanie who is the nurse manager and Sister Pat who is the director of the health center. I feel so lucky to work with people who love what they do and are dedicated to the mission of the health center.
Along with the health center is St. Mary's Community Center. Sr. Pat is the director of both of these. They work along with each other. Once an individual is a paricipant at one, they are available for services at the other. The community center is in the heart of the poorest neighborhood in Savannah. This was done purposefully to help transform this once thriving community to it's original way. The community center offers tons of services free of charge. Some of them include an afterschool program, preschool, food pantry, training to take the GED's, job hunting, help with taxes, monthly eye clinics, and much much more. Since I have been in Savannah I have been back and forth at both sites.
Sooooo.. what have I been doing here for a month.. wellllll. That is a whole other story. Basically there was a huge mix up with my nursing license and found out that I need a Georgia license and cannot practice under a PA license... although in almost every other state I would be able to, here I cannot. So until I receive my GA license which could take another month I am being kept very busy. Sr. Pat is so awesome at making me not feel useless and providing me with things to do in the meantime. At the health center I help out with lab work - drawing blood, EKG's, giving shots, processing various in house labs that we are able to do - and I do lots of paper work. It really is good to get me into the groove of how everything works. I am also working with Kat (whom I live with) and Cindy (who works as a social worker at the comm. center and is our age!) on developing a wellness program! It actually starts on Monday. I am so psyched. We are going to offer two exercise classes every week, a 30 minute wellness session along with a weigh in, and one-on-one sessions for discussion about personal daily food logs and nutrition consultation. We have had so many people who are willing to help us develop this program and get it going. We have met with dieticians, exercise physiologists, and many other people to get ideas as to how to go about making this program successful. So far we probably have about 25 women who have expressed interest. I just hope that they actually do come and stick with it. We are going to provide prizes and all sorts of incentives to try and keep them interested. The exercise classes will also be a lot of fun and geared towards doing fun and easy things just to get them moving. Almost all of the participants are obese African American women who are diabetics. So this program is going to be so beneficial to their health.
In addition to developing this program, I am in the process of becoming the new diabetic educator for the diabetics of the community and health center. The current diabetic educator is an RN from the St. Joseph's/Candler Health system. Her work load at the hospital is increasing so she has to leave. So I will be replacing her... Yikes! She is excellent and so knowledgeable.. I am pretty nervous about her leaving. I have been taking some diabetes education classes though and sitting in with her on the one-on-one sessions that she does. As of right now I will be meeting with 98- yes 98- diabetics! I will meet with them one-on-one every 3 months to see how they are doing and keep track of their progress. When someone is newly diagnosed with diabetes I will be teaching them about diabetes and how they will manage it, etc. It is really great though because we are able to provide all these diabetics with needles, lancets, strips, and meters free of charge! Becoming a diabetic is not only life changing in the sense of eating habits and exercise, but the cost can be outrageous. Essentially I have a lot going on and my real work has yet to even start! There is so much more I have already to say about the health center and people and struggles we are facing in terms of keeping it open, but I will have to save that for another blog. Until next time, please keep us all in your prayers. =)