Students
Provide Eight Days of Healthcare, Education, Meal Service for Six Denver
Nonprofits
Six Denver School of
Nursing (DSN) students, assisted by a DSN faculty member who is a mental health
specialist, provided healthcare, performed assessments and educated seniors and
homeless individuals about health issues at Denver area nonprofits and for
veterans undergoing treatment at the Veterans Administration (VA) Hospital in
Aurora, said Marguerite Distel, RN, DSN assistant professor (www.denverschoolofnursing.edu).
For Denver Urban
Ministries (http://denum.org), students assessed
and performed intakes for the underprivileged, monitoring their blood pressure
and conducting blood sugar tests. They
assisted them in shopping at DeNum’s food pantry so they could choose healthy
and nutritionally balanced food options. Also, in collaboration with Food Bank
of the Rockies (www.foodbankrockies.org), students unloaded
the food truck and restocked DeNum’s food stocks.
Students conducted
community outreach for Colfax Community Network, where children and families
who have endured abuse, addiction, crime, harassment, hunger, loss of
employment and neglect, receive care, medical clinic assistance, food and
housing in a network of “motel communities.” (http://colfaxcommunitynetwork.org)
Interacting with over
70 homeless people over the age of 55 at Senior Support Services, which
provides outreach and needed services to low-income and homeless seniors, DSN
students prepared and served breakfast two mornings in a row and conducted a
health fair, connecting the underserved to service organizations. (http://www.seniorsupportservices.org/about.html)
For those cared for
at Denver Rescue Mission’s The Crossing (www.denverrescuemission.org), students arrived
at dawn to prepared and serve breakfast to hundreds of homeless people and
continued work there, preparing food for that day’s lunch services for hundreds
more.
For five days, in a
clinical partnership with the Veteran’s Administration Hospital, students, under
the supervision of their clinical faculty, placed IVs, dosed medications
orally, intravenously and intramuscularly and performed several head-to-toe
assessments.
The six DSN students
who participated included Alyssa Benjamin, Daya Bhakta, Anna Maynard, Megan
Mitchell, Emily Moats and Lisa Shurter. They were mentored by DSN faculty
member Toni Esperanza, assistant professor and a mental healthcare specialist.
Each quarter, DSN
students engage in service-learning globally as part of their participation in
the Global Health Perspectives (GHP) program. DSN conducts clinical internships
with homeless and at-need populations of Denver inner-city organizations twice
yearly as part of the GHP program.
About Denver
School of Nursing (DSN)
Denver School of Nursing, 1401 19th St., Denver, is a private,
post-secondary college that provides educational programs and training for
nursing professionals. The college specializes in offering rigorous
curricula, clinical site-based academic programs toward associate and
bachelor degrees in nursing and distance-delivered academic programs toward a
bachelor degree in nursing. DSN is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission
(HLC), (www.hlcommission.org), (800-621-7440).
Its associate and baccalaureate programs are accredited by the Accreditation
Commission for Education in Nursing (ACEN), 3343 Peachtree Road NE, Suite 850,
Atlanta, GA 30326 (404-975-5000). DSN is granted full approval for its
associate and bachelors nursing programs by the Colorado State Board of
Nursing. National Council of State Authorization Reciprocity Agreements (SARA)
approval is maintained through the Colorado Department of Higher Education. For
more information, call 303-292-0015 or visit www.denverschoolofnursing.edu.