Baxter - Madison
Children laughing and playing, older folks walking down the street, some new homes, new schools and green areas—this is Baxter-Madison.
Long-term partnership
The Baxter-Madison neighborhoods and Calvin nursing department formed a partnership in 2002. The partnership aims to provide students with community-based experiences that meet curriculum objectives and promote the health of the residents in the Baxter-Madison neighborhoods.
While working in Baxter-Madison, you will have the chance to get to know people in their own environment. Much of a nurse’s work is done in a hospital-like setting, so this is also a great opportunity to really meet with people where they are comfortable.
In the first semester of your junior year, you’ll have gained a wide variety of experiences in the neighborhoods. You’ll each spend a day working with a nurse in the holistic health clinic located in the enlarged/remodeled Baxter Community Center. You'll partner up with another student and teach two health-related topics (nutrition, exercise etc.) to students in Martin Luther King Jr. Leadership Academy.
As a student, you can spend part of a day shadowing a school nurse to see what their role is in caring for the children of the neighborhoods and assisting the nurse as appropriate.
You will also meet with a resident in a neighborhood senior housing facility. In addition to getting to know the person, they complete an extensive health assessment, and from that, an area of need for health teaching is completed with the resident.
Survey results
Recently, seniors have had the chance to do research in Baxter-Madison. After a survey in the neighborhoods revealed women were interested in learning more about their bodies, seniors partnered with a community health worker and do home visits. Surveys were done in 2003, 2010, and 2017.
- Thirty percent agree that lack of health insurance prevents them from receiving the health care they need.
- Forty-eight percent have at least one person in the household with hypertension.
- Thirty-three percent have at least one person in the household with asthma.
- Twenty-seven percent have at least one person in the household with depression.
- Twenty-four percent have at least one person with diabetes.
- Twenty percent state they had a time where they needed prescription medications but could not get them because of cost.
This has been a very beneficial partnership for both the neighborhoods and the nursing students. You will be provided with a variety of valuable learning experiences while responding to needs of and serving a diverse, vulnerable population, Jesus' own precious children—young and old alike.