By Angela Voht
School of Nursing students Ryan Clayton and Matt Erickson have been on the front lines of hard-core community outreach this semester. In their fourth year of studies, these soon-to-be nurses are weaving hope and empathy into the sparse fabric of the Crystal Meth Society’s (CMS) non-profit resource pool.
Clayton and Erickson are participants in the School of Nursing community placement practica that links students with community organizations that can benefit from the school’s health promotion and harm reduction mandate. They have been working with the Crystal Meth Society’s addiction training and street outreach program since September. CMS and their clients benefit from the students’ enthusiasm and empathy. The students explore their ability to influence change as they go out into the community to learn. And the nursing program is enriched as students bring their practicum experiences back to share with colleagues.
The nursing practicum students commit about six hours a week over a 12-week period, but those six hours are challenging. Outreach with CMS involves caring enough to connect with people who are on the fringes of society, and often stigmatized for their very existence. As a result, they’re not always immediately willing to trust an approaching stranger. “This is a relatively new program. We want to establish a relationship with them first, to tell them that there are people out there who do care about them and they’re not completely alone,” explains Clayton.
The students also act as conduits to other resources, providing information about shelters, food banks and health clinics. They sometimes see physical conditions that need to be treated—cuts, abscessed injection spots and chronic conditions that manifest more seriously when one is living on the street. Though these clients tend to go without care for too long, the students encourage them to seek more formal care. “They talk about the way they’re treated in the emergency department. Many are afraid to access health care, so we might be their first contact, and what they perceive to be a safe contact,” explains Erickson.
For Clayton and Erickson, an average night of outreach also includes approaching local businesses for donations of food, water, socks, gloves, blankets and basic medical supplies. Cobs Bread has been a consistent donor, and Wal-Mart and Costco have made donations. Nevertheless, it requires a lot of collaboration and co-operation amongst the student team to be able to make the deliveries happen. And often funds for supplies come out of the students’ own pockets. Once supplies are prepared, they go into backpacks, and the group heads into town.
“When we’re out there, we just walk around wherever we happen to meet clients—approach them from afar, present who we are, tell them about what we’re doing,” says Erickson. “Usually they open up, and we’ll go talk to them. Or some might just be starting to get high and won’t be in a space to talk. So we always have to read the person and play the situation as it comes.”
“We’re learning everything from reading body language and facial expressions as we approach people, to how to assess someone’s overall physical condition,” says Clayton. “And especially how important it is just to talk to someone, let them know you care about their situation—that you see them.”
Respecting personal space and paying heed to their own safety, while generating positive relationships based on trust and empathy and providing nutrition and harm reduction strategies—it’s a tall order. “We operate without funding for this unique nurse training program, and are badly in need of financial donors and supplies,” says Marilyn Erickson, vice-president of CMS.
Eager to make a difference in their communities while learning from the experience in a way that can’t happen in a classroom, Clayton and Erickson are clearly benefiting from the work as much as the individuals they serve. “We get a tremendous response,” says Clayton. “The gratitude we receive is very sincere. It’s truly a good thing for everyone.”
