Dancing, Working, and Culture Shock

By Jannessah Harper

Chicago is a melting pot for all people: Christian and Jewish, Hispanic and African American, young and old. One of my reasons for participating in the Chicago Semester program was to experience a new culture. Holland, MI is a lovely town, but it is a place where I did not get to taste the diversity that inhabits the city of Chicago.

As part of our nursing course while attending Chicago Semester, the five other nursing students and I were encouraged to participate in a health service activity. The opportunity arose for us to take part in a “Go Red” campaign put on by the Phi Kappa Omega chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. The “Go Red” campaign is a national movement to fight against heart disease for women.

For the event, the other nursing students, our nursing instructor, and I traveled to the south side of Chicago to a local school. In this community, many of the families and women are burdened from stress, long work hours, and a lack of appropriate healthcare. I arrived at the school slightly intimidated and completely unaware of what it was we were entering into. All I knew was to bring my stethoscope, blood pressure cuff, and was told there would be line dancing. Being an Oklahoma native, the only kind of line dancing I have encountered involved cowboy boots, country music, and way too much denim. This was not what I found as I entered the gymnasium of the school. The room was filled with African-American women dancing, laughing, and greeting each person. There was a sense of community and love that was inescapable.

 One of the best identifying factors for an individual being at risk for heart disease is a high blood pressure. We had tables set up inside the gymnasium for the women to come and have their blood pressure taken by one of the nursing students. Information on ways to reduce blood pressure and a sheet for recording blood pressures were given to each person that came. Personally, prior to this experience I believed that this type of screening only helps to inform people on the importance of health management rather than actually having an immediate effect in an individual’s health. For one woman, the screening provided at the “Pink Goes Red” event identified an abnormally high blood pressure that would need further medical attention. The Chicago Semester nursing instructor provided more information to the woman about the risks of having such a high blood pressure along with clinics that offered free medical attention since she did not have insurance. I began to realize after the event, that even the smallest health screening could make a difference. It just takes a little bit of extra attention to an individual to realize a difference can be made.

 I am seeing new sides to this city I get to temporarily call home. I’m learning that to embrace this time in Chicago requires risk, passion for adventure, and the willingness to be attentive to the individual. 

Orientation and the Start of Long Nights

by Julie Cioffi

As Christmas vacation was ending, I began to anticipate the long-awaited semester away from Hope College in Chicago. Originally from Naperville, IL, a Chicago suburb, I was excited to finally experience the city and everything that city living entails. The other nursing students and I were placed in an apartment in the Pilsen neighborhood, which is close to the University of Illinois Hospital where I will be interning on the night shift in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. 

Orientation week started off with a group dinner at Lou Malnati's Pizzeria, where we were introduced to the various professors of The Chicago Semester, and were able to meet the others students in the program. It was all beginning! The week of orientation was filled with new experiences for me. For one, public transportation. At Hope College, everything is in walking distance, and I have barely used the public transportation system in Chicago. Figuring out the 'L' train and bus system was challenging at first, but quickly became familiar.

In Pilsen, we were placed in an apartment building for students called La Casa Student Housing. The seven other girls who I live with and I decided on some fun events while we had the time during orientation week. Tuesday night, four of us decided to see The Phantom of The Opera at the Cadillac Palace Theater, which was phenomenal. Thursday night, five of the nursing students and I went to Adler After Dark, at the Adler Planetarium where we saw shows on space that were breath taking, and also an improv comedy group. That weekend, the La Casa girls spent the afternoon in the National Museum of Mexican Art, which is located a block from out apartment. It was exciting to see so many different parts of city.

Something that I will cherish about Chicago, isn't that there is a Starbucks on every corner, but that there are different personalities of the Chicago neighborhoods. As a vegetarian and someone who loves coffee and cooking, I truly enjoyed finding new vegetarian/vegan restaurants as well as local coffee shops. Some would call me a 'foodie'. My favorite restaurant so far is Karyn's on Green, in the West Loop Neighborhood.

As mentioned previously, my internship is in the Neonatal ICU at University of Illinois Chicago Hospital, on the night shift. The other five nursing students are on the day shift, so this experience is quite a bit different for me. While they are working during the day, I will be sleeping, and working at night. My first few shifts were definitely an adjustment. It wasn't too bad the first night, everything was so new and my preceptor and I kept busy. But, the sleeping during the day and napping will be the greatest balancing act when working the night shift. I am very excited to spend the next twelve weeks in the neonatal ICU. My preceptor is wonderful and a great teacher thus far. The babies in the NICU are primarily premature infants, and they are tiny and adorable. It's amazing how something so small can bring such joy. I feel so blessed to be a part of the team in the NICU and am ready for what God has to teach me this semester in Chicago.

Volunteering with the AIDS Foundation of Chicago

As the other three nursing students and I start our fourth week of internship, we are beginning to get the hang of the routine and the city. Between the four of us, we are doing internships on the pediatric unit, two different medical-surgical units, and the emergency department at University of Illinois-Chicago Medical Center. We have quickly adjusted to the life of getting up at 5 am in order to get ready and catch the 6 o’clock Red Line train. We are getting used to working 8 and 12 hour days multiple times a week. And most importantly we are learning what it is truly like to be a nurse. Another focus that the four of us will have this semester is our service project with The AIDS Foundation of Chicago.

The mission of the AIDS Foundation of Chicago (AFC) is “to lead the fight against HIV/AIDS and improve the lives of people affected by the epidemic.” AFC has created a wide variety of projects, events, and fundraisers to help them achieve their mission including runs, dance events, and passing out safe-sex kits at a variety of festivals and events around the city. These next few months the Chicago Semester nursing students will be meeting on the last Tuesday of every month to help AFC pack the safe sex packets that they hand out. The last Tuesday in January was our first time attending the “Safe-Sex Kit and Movie Night” event and the four of us were a bit unsure of what to expect. Once we arrived at the offices, we learned that we would be spending the next few hours watching and discussing movies about social issues while packing the safe-sex kits. Shortly after we got there other volunteers continued to join us until we had a group of about 12 people. To start, the coordinator of the event told us a bit about why we were making the kits and how they pass out thousands of these kits every year, especially during the events in the city during the summer months. As we watched and discussed If These Walls Could Talk and If These Walls Could Talk 2, the 12 of us ended up making over 1,000 kits of condoms, lubricant, and a flyer. In addition to helping out AFC, we were able to talk with the other young adults from Chicago that we otherwise would have never met. It was interesting to hear their stories and their passion for service and the HIV/AIDS community.

As future nurses, this semester in Chicago is a great opportunity for us to learn about the health disparities in such a large city and educate ourselves about how we can help better the health of those around us. We have all gotten the opportunity to interact with a wide variety of people and cultures in our internship experiences and have learned how education and prevention plays a major role in the health of an individual. Participating in projects that are outside of a hospital setting is a great way for us to stay involved with community health and decreasing health disparities.