Week 3 at Community Clinic

Sara Johnston
23 February 2007
MIDS 201

Journal Entry #3

I was only able to go the Clinic one day this week, Wednesday, because volunteers from College Heights Church were there every other day this week.

Something I forgot to mention that happened last week: seeing prisoners brought in to receive healthcare. It was strange and unsettling to see people brought in wearing orange jumpsuits and shackles. Before they arrived, one of the office assistants told Austin Ahles and me that prisoners were going to be brought in. They would come in through the back door, with an armed guard accompanying them at all times. Austin needed to leave to go to work, but her purse was back in a room that was past the prisoners. Luckily, someone showed us how to get back to that room by going down a different hall. It surprised me that the prisoners were not put in a room by themselves, they were just sitting in the hallway. Any patients taken back to exam rooms would see them. I think if patients saw the prisoners, it would them feel worse about their situation: They are already uninsured and at their last resort for healthcare, and now they receive the same kind of care as a prisoner, who most people, I think, view as sub-standard humans. It could also make them feel unsafe, which is something I’m sure many of them already feel in their lives. I know that not all of the people who use the clinic are very economically disadvantaged; they are just without health insurance at this point in their lives. Most of the patients that I have viewed, though, fit in the former category.

This week, when I was pulling charts for the patients that would be coming in on Thursday, I was told to not bother looking for the last two on the list: they were the prisoners, and had no charts, or at least theirs were not with all of the others. I didn’t know if this was a clinic policy, or something court-mandated, that the medical records of prisoners be kept separate.

Pulling charts was the only thing I did on Wednesday. And it didn’t even take that long. The only thing I dislike about my volunteerism at the Clinic is how much time I spend standing around, waiting for someone to give me something to do. On Thursdays it’s much better when I have a doctor to observe during the very busy adult clinic day. My dad called me while I was there to talk to me about registering for the MCAT. At first I felt bad about spending 15 minutes of my volunteer time talking on the phone (even though it was about something very important and time-sensitive), but later I was thankful for it because it made 15 minutes less that I just stood there. Even the paid workers at the clinic get bored and just stand around and talk with us, eating whatever food someone has brought in. When you hear that the Clinic is in desperate need of volunteers, I think it is referring to medical professionals, not college kids who need some volunteer hours. Obviously, we are trying to accomplish more than just accumulating hours, but it does not seem that way when I am just standing there feeling useless.

Week 2

Sara Johnston

17 February 2007

MIDS 201

Journal Entry #2

I did finally get to start my service-learning this week at the Joplin Community Clinic. On Tuesday I arrived at 1. The first thing that surprised me when I walked in was that there was no one in the waiting room. Because all I ever hear about the Community Clinic is their desperate need for volunteers and supplies, I figured it would be packed all of the time. I learned that this was due to the fact that they do not have doctors in every day at all hours- they have different clinics on different days.

I did not even get a tour of the facility like I expected- the volunteer coordinator showed me where to hang my coat and where to sign in and out. She then gave me the task of stuffing envelopes with the Clinic newsletter. I did not mind this at all, even when I then had to address a few dozen and then lick them all. I was then shown the filing system. I pulled a few charts from a list of people I was given. I wrote down the patient’s name, city and county, and whether or not they had Medicaid.

When I left at 4, the waiting room was full of people there for their medicine refills, which is also something that is only done at a certain time a certain number of times a month. This tight scheduling of services indicates to me that if someone is serious about receiving care from the Community Clinic, he/she must be careful to know when the clinic offers the services he/she needs, and that the Clinic will be offering prescription refills before he/she runs out.

On Thursday I arrived at the Clinic at 4. Thursdays are the adult clinic days, so they are the busiest days of the week, when there is the most to do and the clinic is open the latest. One of the doctors that my mom works for, Dr. Anthony Arvelos, volunteers on those days, and I had already arranged with him that I could be his shadow on those days. When I first got to the Clinic, I did not see him because he was already with a patient, so I pulled all the charts of the people who were coming in the next day for the dental clinic. I then was able to see a few patients with Dr. A. Two out of the three patients had borderline diabetes. The third one was a man who Dr. A was not seeing officially; when Dr. A walked past the room he was in and saw him, he stopped to talk to him. The patient was an example of what people often think of as the stereotypical person who would need to use the Clinic’s free services: he was a ragged man, with missing front teeth, no car, and more things wrong with him than can be counted. He was there to see the dermatologist about a skin rash; an R.N. about his high cholesterol, blood pressure, and a giant lump on his elbow from where his arm had already been broken and then was fallen on. It was pretty amazing that Dr. A remembered everything about this patient’s history and was willing to help him.

When Dr. A was done with his patients, he talked to me a little. He told me that most of the people there were good people who knew that the Clinic was their last place to receive healthcare, and that they would do whatever they were supposed to to keep those very needed services.

Week 1- Trying to volunteer at the Community Clinic

Sara Johnston

10 February 2007

MIDS 201

Journal Entry #1

This week I did not get to volunteer. It was not that I waited to the last minute to contact the Joplin Community Clinic to set up the volunteerism, it was that when I did try to call them, I could not get a hold of the person I needed to- the volunteer coordinator. When you call the Clinic, you get a ridiculously long recording that is almost impossible to listen to. It made me wonder how many people that need to use the clinic do not because it was difficult to understand all of the details- what proof you did and did not need of things, what days you could or could not make appointments for this or that, what things you did need appointments for and what things you did not, what days and times certain special clinics were open, and even what days the clinic was open and its hours on those days.

I finally got the extension of the volunteer coordinator and left her a message on Tuesday, January 30th, telling her that who I was, that I was from the Honors Program at MSSU wanting to volunteer for my service learning class, and that I was a Pre-Med major. Two days later, I got a message at home telling me to call her and leave my address on her voicemail so she could mail me the application. Application? I knew I would have to sign some things or fill out a questionnaire and do an interview, but a full-blown application? I know that the Clinic is an important place where people’s lives and security are of the utmost importance, but I did not realize I would have to go through a screening process. Isn’t it just enough that someone wants to volunteer? Is it a bad assumption to make that someone who volunteers is doing it for a good reason, is credible, and is a “good person?” It is understandable that someone, once they find out all what is entailed in what they would like to volunteer for, might back out; they might also learn they do not have the experience necessary; but that could all be easily figured out in an interview.

I decided it was ridiculous to wait for a mailed application- I live in Joplin, and it would take me ten minutes to go pick one up. So on Wednesday the 7th I did. The volunteer coordinator was not in, so someone else had to go find me an application. When the lady brought it to me, she showed me what pages to fill out, then the two reference sheets I needed to have filled out by two people, which had to then go in sealed envelops with their signatures across the seal. Even more hoops to jump through, and more people to involve! There is even an orientation before one begins to volunteer. Of course, when I got home, there was the application in the mail. I figured now if I made a mistake on one, I had a backup. All of this red tape makes me wonder how many potential volunteers are scared away by it. I may not have got to start getting my volunteer hours this week, but I have already learned a lot about the Joplin Community Clinic.