Rush is constantly giving students opportunities to volunteer and get involved with the community. I like to sign up with them every once in a while to practice my health assessment techniques and get exposed to new things. A few weeks ago I went to Haymarket Center, which is a drug addiction center, and did a few health assessments in their urgent care clinic. Nothing too crazy as far as health issues, but interesting to hear some of the patients' stories.
This past week I went to the Franciscan House which is a few minutes west of Rush on Harrison St, aka a pretty ghetto area. They are a 250 bed facility that provides food and shelter for the homeless. It is a first come first serve system with a few regular guests. When I got there at 7:30 there was already a line of people sitting outside the building with hopes to get a bed for the night. I was told by a fellow student that once you become a regular, you have some chores you have to do and you have to sleep there every night otherwise you lose your bed and there is a long waiting list to be a regular. Before coming I bumped into a friend who volunteered a few weeks ago. She didn't give me much scoop on what to expect, besides that it was interesting and to be careful of the bed bugs. After the initial shock, I took it with a grain of salt. Meh, bed bugs. She's probably yankin my chain and they're gone by now. When I got there to help set up it wasn't until the doctor spear heading this program warned us about the bed bug issue that I started to get a little grossed out. What can I do, Im already here. Thank goodness I was just in my nursing scrubs rather than a nice business casual outfit. 
The nurses were in charge of triage and admissions while handing out OTC meds to whoever wanted them. We were giving out benedryl, tylenol, asprin and cough drops tonight. Everything in the clinic has either been donated or purchased with grant money, but with recent budget cuts, it was slim pickins. We did the women's section first, they about 35 beds. We would stand in the room where they slept and they would just come up and ask for the drugs we had available or ask to see the doctor. Most just took the drugs but some wanted to see the doctor about a rash or for a prenatal checkup. We'd get as much info as possible and wait until the med students could see them.
Then we went to the men's ward which has about 200 beds and was a little more hectic. Some of the men were very polite. "Good evening ma'am", "thank you for your work," "God bless you," "I really appreciate you taking the time to do thin" etc. And some not so much... one guy was getting angry because the man in front of him had asked me a question and was taking to long. When it was his turn I said thank you for being patient to which he ranted off he wasn't patient and that guy was pissing him off for taking his precious time yada, yada, yada. I didn't humor him, gave him one of everything and said here, now you can go to bed. Another guy was trying to gypsy me out of another packet of Benedryl. "Come on no one will know. No one cares. Im more sick than half these guys" I tried to explain to him that we needed to make sure we had enough for everyone and if we bend the rules for one the system eventually spirals down and breaks. After a short banter he then told me he deserved an extra packet because he wasn't black, to which I replied, You are entitled to your opinion, now good night. What I really wanted to say was, you are no better than the man sleeping next to you asshole!
After we took chief complaints for appointments, we were able to help the med students see the patients in the back. By then it was lights out so I would have to use a flash light walking down the aisle of the beds to get the next man to see a doctor. Modern day Florence Nightingale! One guy had an abscess on his upper gum for over a month. Someone had stolen his bag with his last set of antibiotics so it had gone untreated and the pain was traveling up his face. The guy was high as hell and could barely keep his eyes open yet asked me if it was that obvious when we called him out on it. I get he probably wanted something to help sleep, but come on, you can't wait until after you're seen by the doctor.
The other patient I saw in the exam room had a boil that he popped and get infected, I mean really infected. He went to the library to research it and was trying what he could with Neosporin and band-aids. A lovely gentleman. Then he proceeded to tell me the pussy discharge was very viscous, like a mucus consistency, and that he even tried to use the back end of his swiss army knife to get it out. What a perfect opportunity for patient teaching and how infection spreads. We set him up with some antibiotics and supplies and told him to see us in two weeks.
When I got home is was about 11:30 at night and I had to be back at Rush, on the floor at 6:45, for clinical the next morning. However, I was not going to take a risk with bed bugs so I threw my clothes in the wash and took a nice long shower. It was an interesting evening and I'd totally do it again. I thrive on new experiences and exposure to worlds so far from my own.
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