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.