Hard Realities of Poor Health in Todays' Community
So I guess I should start this series by telling you why I think these stories are important to get out there. Not just for support, or empathy, or teaching... but for awareness of what happens outside hospital walls, and to see through the eyes of the poverty side in Toronto.
My first glance of community nursing was in February 2016, servicing Scarborough, Toronto. I was selected as the 4th nurse to be involved in the Scarborough Palliative Care Team Pilot Project in the Central East LHIN. This pilot was aimed to provide care for strictly palliative clients only, cared by nurses with specialized palliative care experience. Since this was relatively new, there really wasn't a large selection of nurses who had community AND palliative care experience to join the team. I for one, had 4 years of palliative care under my belt at that time, and no community experience (other than back in the day as a PSW). Little did I know what I was getting myself into.
I think palliative care is becoming more and more recognized as the years go by, but there's still so many people out there who have no idea what it's all about. For the most part, if you know about palliative care, it's usually because you've lived through the experience of someone having problems with their health, or worse, someone dying.
In this series of Hard Realities of Poor Health in Todays' Community, you can expect to read about some really tough and heart wrenching case scenarios that I've personally witnessed. All real people. All very difficult. All very real in TODAY's society. Early warning: this is not for the faint-hearted.
Disclaimer: all names have been changed, and some minor details of the case scenarios have been altered in order to maintain patient-nurse confidentiality. *
