Newswise — Health science students, faculty and staff from Loyola University Chicago will participate in a simulation to help them better understand what it is like to live in poverty. During the four-hour simulation, participants will role-play the lives of families living in poverty and others will serve as representatives from the many social service agencies with which they interact.
“Participants will come away with a better understanding of the impact poverty has on health and well-being,” said Aaron Michelfelder, MD, family medicine physician, Loyola University Health System, and associate director for the Institute for Transformative Interprofessional Education (I-TIE), Loyola University Chicago. “This workshop also will teach our students, doctors, nurses and other health-care professionals how to better care comprehensively for patients in the context and realities in which they live."
The simulation will take place from 9 a.m. to noon on Thursday, Feb. 6, at St. Eulalia’s Church located at 1851 S. 9th Ave. in Maywood. Faculty and students from the Food and Nutrition Program in Loyola’s Marcella Niehoff School of Nursing will provide lunch and discuss inexpensive strategies for healthy eating.
This workshop is part of a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Health Resources and Services Administration I-CARE-PATH grant (#UD7HP26040). The goal of the grant is to foster interprofessional education within the schools of nursing, medicine, dietetics, social work and public health to ultimately improve care for patients.
Loyola faculty will determine how this simulation can be used in a greater capacity within its curricula while Loyola doctors and other health-care professionals will be able to apply their findings directly to patient care.
“Loyola has a rich history of shaping our students into competent, compassionate and socially responsible health-care professionals,” said Fran Vlasses, PhD, RN, NEA, FAAN, Department Chair in the Marcella Niehoff School of Nursing and associate director for I-TIE, “This program is very much in line with our mission, as it gives our faculty and students a greater understanding of the needs of the underserved, making them more compassionate and well-rounded health-care professionals.”
RSS