Nursing students help underserved communities get their kids back-to-school ready

George Mason University’s Mason and Partners (MAP) Clinic holds free clinics throughout Northern Virginia every day. This summer, two of those community-based clinics helped local elementary school students get back-to-school ready.

School of Nursing students at the MAP Clinic in the Population Health Center. Photo by Shayla Brown

Managed by practitioners in the College of Public Health, the clinics offer uninsured school-aged children and other underserved communities essential health services. They also allow undergraduate nursing students, including MSN Family Nurse Practitioner and Accelerated Bachelor of Science in Nursing (ABSN) students, as well as graduate psychology, social work, health informatics and administration students among others, to complete Community Health Clinical requirements in a meaningful way.

George Mason’s School of Nursing ran the first clinic on June 21, where 38 ABSN and four nurse practitioner students were working, and the second on July 19, where 28 ABSN and three nurse practitioner students were working. In total, 45 families brought their children to receive vaccines and physical examinations.

“The clinics are a different side of nursing. The families are so sweet and grateful for everyone who’s there,” said ABSN student Kaleigh O’Keefe.

The MAP Clinic collaborates with many community partners throughout the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area including Fairfax County Public Schools, Manassas City Public Schools, Manassas Park City Schools, Prince William County Schools, Refugee Resettlement Agencies, Fairfax United Methodist Church, Inova Alexandria Hospital, and non-profits across the region.

School of Nursing faculty providing medical care to a student in the Population Health Center. Photo by Shayla Brown

School nurses, school-parent liaisons, refugee resettlement case managers, and caregivers from these various locations reach out to MAP Clinic administration to schedule appointments for students.

“Many of these families are long-term patients who we’ve been seeing at our MAP Clinics for years now,” said Kenneth Frese, director of clinical operations in the School of Nursing.

The clinics are able to address a variety of communities and health issues such as general health, pediatrics, and substance abuse, said O’Keefe. Nursing students rotate through all of the specialties.

The clinics collaboration with Inova comes in the form of the Inova Cares Clinic for Families, which allows patients that need to be closely monitored to receive care from Inova for a discounted rate based on income.

“I had a patient whose blood pressure was really high, which in children is typically caused by some type of kidney problem, so we tested his urine and there was a high protein count, which can indicate kidney damage,” explained O’Keefe. “We sent him to Inova where he was officially diagnosed, though he still comes back to the MAP Clinic to follow up with us sometimes.”

Nursing students also collaborated with students and faculty from George Mason’s Department of Social Work throughout the MAP clinics.

Amy Joyner with backpacks that were donated to the children at the clinic. Photo by Shayla Brown — Amy Joyner with backpacks that were donated to the children at the MAP clinic. Photo by Shayla Brown

“Social work was a big part of the work we were doing. A lot of our job was ––communicating with those students,” Isabelle Kahng, an ABSN student who will be doing a neuro-ICU practicum for the MedStar Health Future Nurse Program partnership.

“It was our responsibility to relay the patient’s information to the provider, as well as the social workers, so that we could work together in getting the resources the patients need,” said Kahng.

“Bonding with these kids is my favorite part,” said O’Keefe. “They’re just so happy to be there, and being there to help them thrive is everything.”