U. students host local health forum

Three weeks ago, Tracy Lawrence and Jennifer Miller had a great idea. It involved the West Philadelphia community and it allowed them to use the skills they had learned as students in the Nursing School. Last Friday afternoon, at the West Philadelphia Community Center, Nursing senior Lawrence and Nursing sophomore Miller lead a forum to teach West Philadelphians about important health issues. "We used some of the teaching projects we made in class," Lawrence said, adding that some of the topics included foods low in sodium and exercises for new moms. Clinical instructor in the Nursing School and nurse practicioner Ellen Whelan helped Lawrence and Miller with the project. Upon arriving at the forum, people received folders which briefed them on each stop of the forum, contained pamphlets, and provided a place to write down the results of the various tests they took. Several educational and health groups participated in the forum, including Blacks Educating Blacks About Sexual Health Issues, a health insurance company called Health Pass and a Children's Hospital of Philadelphia emergency room nurse, who came to talk about safety. Forum participants were also able to have their blood pressure, height and weight tested, watch a CPR demonstration, and receive information about feeding babies and infant safety. The forum also featured a breast cancer stop where a model breast was used to show women how to do a monthly Breast Self Exam. But Lawrence said the hit of the day was the smoking table. The display showed healthy lung tissue and smoker's lung tissue, in order to impress upon the watchers the detrimental effects of cigarette smoking. "The [smoker's] lungs were black and nasty and crunchy," Miller said. Some displays interested certain groups of people more than others. "The adults went straight to blood pressure," Lawrence said. Miller added that the children primarily enjoyed the height and weight tests and the nutrition table because, "it had cookies on it." The nursing students approximated that about 70 people came to the forum and 40 nursing students volunteered. Both Miller and Lawrence felt the forum was successful. On a personal level, Miller said the forum helped develop her organizational skills, and "taught her how to delegate authority." Miller said the students wished that "teen moms" had come to the forum, since "BEBASHI was targeted for" them. And she said they also wanted people to take cholesterol and blood sugar tests, but Mercy Catholic Hospital, which would have offered the exams, could not participate in the forum. Despite these disappointments, Lawrence said the forum gave freshman and sophmore nursing students the opportunity to become a part of the community. "Penn isn't the world," Miller said, "and people can use the knowledge we're gaining. Anything like this always has a good outcome." Next year, since Lawrence is graduating in May, Miller will have to enlist others to help her with another forum. Lawrence suggested that the forum next year have small group discussions, instead of just handing out fliers. "This forum was mostly informational," said Lawrence.

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