For my community partnership I will be working with SPUR Clinics which works with new people who are coming to Maine seeking preliminary healthcare checkups and vaccines. As an immigrant and a relatively new Mainer I have a sense of the difficulty when it comes to getting seen, finding a provider and overall managing your health when you are still getting all your affairs in order as you are moving to a completely new state. Some of the people that need help also don’t have English as their first language and I understand how overwhelming and difficult it is to be heard in that sense. People of this population also have other options within the community. This includes the New Mainers Resource Center or NHRC which strives to help New Mainers and foreign-trained professionals overcome barriers to enter the US workforce, provide advice and support to assist new Mainers become credentialed in the US, and work with employers to connect them with qualified and motivated candidates.
Two learning goals I want to experience also ties in with what I am most nervous about. Currently in my job as a phlebotomist, I get patients who are from out of the country who need an interpreter. Usually these patients come with younger children or other members of their family and it can be a chaotic experience trying to explain what is going to happen. On top of that, asking questions about what labs they are wanting to get done. I want to be able to be more comfortable in that situation and get a better workflow that is still inclusive and doesn’t make anyone feel uncomfortable because of that language barrier. Another goal I want to achieve is being comfortable giving vaccines, and performing glucose and HIV tests which I previously haven’t done before. I am definitely a little nervous about starting, however, this is a population that is near and dear to my heart and I hope to be of help.
