Angelique's Afterthoughts: Tuesday 3/16

Tuesday...that was an interesting day...

So we started our Tuesday by heading across town a little to the Community of Hope. It was a school/clinic/etc that provided services to low income families. Talk about things not going as planned...we arrived under the impression that we were going to be talking to families with young children about stress management. Perhaps we weren't quite as prepared as we could have been for that topic, but we had some basic information to provide and a basic plan as to how we were going to relay the information. First surprise: we were not talking to families, just to primarily single mothers (there were also 2 fathers there). The other surprise stuck us as the group facilitator from Community of Hope passed out the agenda for the meeting. There we were, "UWEC Student Nurses", with the topic of...effective communication with children?!?! Surprise, happy Tuesday morning!

Now, as grad students (not to mention as nurses), we're used to stress and to thinking on our feet. But I can only imagine the looks of panic that must have appeared on our faces as we realized that we were not the least bit prepared for the presentation that we were going to begin in a matter of moments. So what did we do, you might ask? I'd like to say we put together a stellar presentation involving skits and role playing of the right and wrong ways to communicate with children of various ages. However, the reality is that we gave a mediocre presentation which primarily focused on...you guessed it, stress management. We did try to loosely connect the stress to communicating with children. But overall, these parents got a presentation on stress management. I'd like to think we gave them some valid, useful information that, while it might not help them communicate with their children, it will at least help them deal with the stress they experience as they have difficulty communicating with their children.

This experience again brings me back to my theme of things not always going as planned. We were definitely thrown a curve ball with this activity. And we did the best we could with it. But again, at the end of the day, we were lucky; we were all able to sleep in a safe place with a roof over our heads a full belly. Which is more than can be said for the homeless of DC who struggle with curve balls every day, trying to do their best with what they're given. Our worst-case scenario involved us looking unprofessional and unprepared; the worst-case scenario of the homeless is truly a life-or-death situation.