North Miami Elementary School Health Fair

Today I (along with another student) assisted with a local health fair at North Miami Elementary School. It was my first health fair and a good change of pace from volunteering at the Miami Children's Museum. Surprisingly there were only two students who went to the fair, and a Barry University student who was part of the Haitian American Nurses Association (H.A.N.A.). We had project boards showing information on child safety, poison/burn prevention, breast self-examination, and preventing infections (handwashing). We had a children's corner where nursing student ("G") taught kids about germs, handwashing, safety, and entertained them with arts and crafts while the adult were screened for diabetes, high cholesterol, and hypertension.

The H.A.N.A. nurses screened the adults for blood sugar and cholesterol levels while I screened them for high blood pressures. Quite a few, in fact the majority, of the adults at the health fair had high blood pressure. Many of them were also in shock that their blood pressure was so high -- one man, on blood pressure medication (took one that morning), had a blood pressure of 170/110. Clearly his medication was ineffective, and Prof. "A" explained to him in Creole what to do to alleviate the problem (my Creole is a little rusty). About 80% of the adults who attended the health fair were Haitian, most living near the elementary school. What was great about the health fair was that there were other resources they can use after medical screening (making appointments with Miami Dade County Health and F.A.N.M. association, even a make-shift hospital with beds in the auditorium for routine mammograms and pap exams).

Most of the adults responded well to the fair and were interested in what we had to teach them. For example, many of the women at the fair responded favorably to the breast self-examination table, eager to learn methods to identify early signs of breast cancer.

What was surprising was the shear amount of resources available to the adults at the health fair. Doctors, nurses, and social workers were available to prescribe medication, consult, and screen for diseases. I wish more people in the community knew about the fair so they can benefit from it. This health fair, definitely helps meet some of the goals of Healthy People 2010, reducing health disparities in targeted minority populations, such as the Haitian community. It felt good to be a part of a proactive movement to assist local residents in getting the health care they need but otherwise cannot afford.

Today's vocabulary word: epidemiology. Epidemiology (pg. 33) is the study of the distribution and determinants of health-related states or events in a specified population and the application of this study to control the health problem. Epidemiology studies the similarities of people or populations that develop an illness. Knowing the prevalence of certain diseases in a population gives incite on how pervasive an illness is and what methods we can implement to reduce it. For example, at this health fair, many Haitians had high blood pressure, also true for most groups of African descent. We can use this information to find biological and environmental reasons for hypertension (such as greasy foods) and reduce this disease among Haitians.