Windshield Survey of Okemos, Michigan, Essay Example

As any healthcare provider knows, an important part of patient assessment is an assessment of the community in which the patient lives.  If a clinician has a good knowledge of the patient’s environment — of the challenges that the patient is facing from day to day and also of the resources  available to the client — then that clinician is already on the road to coming up with a plan of care that will help their patient achieve optimum health.  This paper is a study of my community, Okemos, Michigan.

Description of the Community

Okemos, as of the 2010 census, has a population of around 21,000 (Meridian Charter Township, 2014, p. 1) and sits along the edge of I-96, bumping up against the larger community of East Lansing and the campus of Michigan State University. It is largely a white community – about three-quarters of the population is Caucasian, with smaller populations of African- and Asian-Americans and Hispanics and its median household income is 67,363, putting it far above the Michigan state average of 45,981 (Meridian Charter Township, 2014, p. 2).

Community Assessment

Driving around this town where my practice is, I was struck by how pretty a place it is, sitting on the banks of the Grand River with plenty of parks and green space like Ferguson Park right in the middle of town and a lot of historic buildings.   There is a variety of housing here: single family homes, townhouses and duplexes, apartment complexes and some mobile homes.  I drove past the two elementary schools, one of them a private Montessori school, and on past one of the middle schools and the high school: the public school system here is very highly-rated.  I also drove through the commercial district: there is a good variety of restaurants here, as well as grocery stores and a health food store and, of course, the ubiquitous malls.  As regards to barriers to healthy living, there are fewer of those, certainly, than many communities in America: Okemos has walking paths throughout the town as well as a golf course, hockey and skating rinks, and several gyms and athletic clubs.  Also, because of the nearness of Michigan State University, there is a large population of young urban professionals and the education level tends to be quite high, and that includes awareness of healthy lifestyles.  Still, driving around, I still see a number of people who are overweight or obese and there are still a good number of smokers around, which I find concerning.  And I know that not all health issues that affect this community are so readily visible: for instance, seasonal affective disorder is common in this area, as it is generally with communities who live in the north, due to the long cold winters and lack of sunlight (University Health Service, 2014, p. 4).  Screening for S.A.D. is a routine part of my practice here.

Culturally Competent Strategies for Patient Care

Gloria Kersey-Matusiak, director of nursing at the Holy Family defines cultural competence as “having specific cognitive and affective skills that are essential for building culturally relevant relationships between provider and patient” (Kersey-Matusiak, 2012, p. 35). Even in a fairly homogenous community like Okemos, where there is not a great deal of ethnic and racial diversity, where linguistic, religious, or ethnic barriers are not as common as they are in larger cities, cultural competence is something to always keep in mind; Josepha Camphina-Bacale, in her article “Delivering Patient-Centered Care in the Middle of a Cultural Conflict” reminds us that “at the core of both patient-centeredness and cultural competence is the importance of seeing the patient as a unique person” (Camphina-Bacale, 2011, p. 5) and it is always important to keep in mind that, whoever your patient is, trying to understand the background they are coming from is of paramount importance when coming up with a plan of care that is acceptable to both you and your patient.

Conclusion

I found this exercise to be a good reminder to me that, as a clinician, I should always be asking myself “Where is this person coming from?” when I am dealing with my patient. I don’t mean this in the just the geographic sense, but in the sense of their background in general: their social class and education level, religious beliefs, personal history, everything it took to get them into my office.  Then I will have a better idea of how to treat them.  I wouldn’t consider this even necessarily to be cultural competence per se: I think it is just good nursing practice.

Works Cited

Camphina-Bacale, J.  (2011). Delivering Patient-Centered Care in the Midst of a Cultural Conflict: the Role of Cultural Competence.  Online Journal of Issues in Nursing. 16(2) 5-7

Kersey-Mutusiak, G. (2012).  Culturally Competent Nursing Care: Are We There Yet? Nursing Management.  43(4) 34-39

Meridian Township Charter. (2014). About Our Township.  Meridian Township Website. Retrieved from www.meridian.mi.us

University Health Service. (2014). Seasonal Affective Disorder.  University of Michigan Website.  Retrieved from www.uhs.umich.edu/sad