My Nonprofit Reviews

I was so impressed with the whole idea of Project Homeless Connect (PHC). When I first entered the auditorium, I felt so overwhelmed and hopeful. I was also very happy to see so many medical professionals donating their time and efforts to PHC. After volunteering with PHC my hopes are that once I graduate as a nurse I too can volunteer my skills to help PHC more, or other organizations like it. When our group arrived, I was nervous and unsure of what to expect of my time there. However, once jobs were divvied out and I was settled into my position doing triage, I got into the swing of things. The time flew by and before I knew it, it was time to go. Offering health care in this way to those less fortunate is a great start. I understand that San Francisco may not be able to keep funding services such as these. This was disappointing news, as I feel we were all doing the community a great service. I only perceive one downfall of offering services in this fashion, the lack of privacy. If I were in the same circumstances, the thought of having to go through so many people, in such a wide open space, and try to actually seek help for something so private as addiction (which some may be ashamed of) may be more difficult if there were people I knew from my community who may judge me for seeking such help. There were many who went through my line that could have used so many more of the services that were offered. However most did not, because of fearing judgment of the person they either came with or were sitting next to, they denied services they obviously wanted, such as a free bus ticket home. The only way things could possibly be remedied in the future would be to provide the clients with more privacy. For instance, in the triage area, anyone sitting within hearing distance would know what services their neighbor was requesting. This in turn could force some clients to refrain from asking for the help they really needed or wanted. A different option could be a community clinic that offered the same services. It would have to be well advertised to the population that needed the services most and remain free and open at hours that would benefit the community. The difficulty would lie in finding people to be available for those hours on a regular basis. Perhaps working at the clinic could be a part of nurses’ and/or doctors’ educational training, a type of "residency", in order to get a feel of what it will be like once we graduate and find ourselves in larger hospital settings. The services would be free and it would be staffed by students who were near graduation and were aware of the most recent knowledge in their field of study. I look forward to volunteering once again at PHC with a few other classmates and will hopefully be there again soon.

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