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Senior nursing student Amy Cooper, right, provides foot care for Kathryn Dwinell at the UNMC Senior Health Promotion Center. The center is run by students from the UNMC College of Nursing Lincoln Division. |
Dwinell, who lives in a retirement home in Lincoln, regularly visits the Senior Health Promotion Center, a nurse-managed center where older adults, age 60 and older, can access health promotion and maintenance services. Services are free for those who cannot afford them. Those who can afford them can make donations.
“They do a wonderful job,” said Dwinell, who has had bone density testing at the center, as well as care for her feet and ears. “The nursing students and faculty are just wonderful. I could certainly pay to have this done, but I have to watch my pennies. But there are people who can’t pay. This is a wonderful place to come to.”
The center, operated by the UNMC College of Nursing, is open every Tuesday and Thursday, from 9:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., and serves older adults in the Lincoln and Lancaster County area. The Center opened in 1999 in Lincoln’s ACTIV AGE Center at 1005 “O” St., with the funding of a $314,000, three-year grant from the Nebraska Healthcare Cash Fund (tobacco settlement dollars).
Despite the expiration of the grant, the center continues to grow – adding more clients and operating only with support from the college, and in-kind donations from the college’s partner, the Lincoln Area Agency on Aging, which donates space, clerical support and an outreach worker who identify older adults who qualify for the services. It also transports people to and from the center. Interpreter services also are offered.
The goal of the center is to keep older adults healthy so they can be independent in their own homes as long as possible, said Linda Sather, Ed.D., assistant professor of community health nursing, UNMC College of Nursing Lincoln Division and director of the center. Nursing students from several classes get valuable experience using their skills in a community setting and serving the needs of older adults.
Services offered include: assessment of physical health; blood pressure, cholesterol and glucose screening; foot care; earwax removal, information about medications and monitoring medication side effects, health education, consultation and referral, if needed. Geriatric nurse practitioners provide health assessments. No appointments are necessary.
Also offered is bone density screening for osteoporosis, mental health care, ear care, breast cancer screening, and help with smoking cessation, alcohol and nutrition counseling.
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Senior nursing student Erin Bomberger, right, checks Mary Etta’s blood pressure. |
The center also serves a rapidly growing minority and immigrant population, she said.
Mary Cramer, Ph.D., UNMC college of Nursing associate professor and interim chair of the Department of Gerontological, Psychosocial, Community Health and Family Nurse Practitioner, said the center has become so popular that Dr. Sather expanded its hours and added four student class groups just to help meet the needs.
“We also are conducting research on the center’s outcomes because we believe that many of our older clients would not be able to remain in their own homes were it not for the health maintenance and prevention services we provide,” Dr. Cramer said. “For elderly to stay in their own homes is not only cost-effective, its generally what most prefer. We also believe that when health problems are screened for and referred early it helps prevent emergency room, which is far more costly.”
One of the most popular health services is foot care — a seemingly aesthetic service. Senior nursing student Brittany Lesoing, however, knows it’s more than clipping toenails.
“Foot health gets overlooked sometimes and foot problems can lead to other health complications like infections and amputations,” she said.
Some people cannot reach their feet, Lesoing said, and occasionally students catch problems like diabetic neuropathy.
The center helps make people more aware of the importance of taking care of their health, Dr. Sather said.
“We are helping get people more enthused about their health and being more compliant in doing things like watching their blood sugars, taking their medications and making them aware of how to prevent fractures,” Dr. Sather said. “If an older person fractures a bone, 50 percent require extended care or a nursing home. For those who go home, some of them develop blood clots from immobility.”
The college is looking for community partners and benefactors to help offset costs of running the center, including equipment and supplies.
For more information, contact Dr. Sather at lsather@unmc.edu, or (402) 472-7364 in Lincoln.