Lessons from the Free Clinic

anon456, BSN, RN

It is my day off but I'm up before the sun. I shower and put on my scrubs and drive across town through rush-hour traffic to my second job, the one I don't get paid a dime for. I arrive at the free clinic and greet the other staff as we make coffee and prepare for the appointments and the walk-ins. This clinic, which has no paid staff and never charges for care, was once a former crack house in a poor neighborhood. Now it is a house of healing and love.

This clinic is special. It serves the needs of those who are shut out of healthcare in America. While most patients are illegal immigrants, some are legal but don't yet qualify for Medicaid. Many wait up to five years for healthcare coverage. Some of our patients came to this country as adults, but others were brought as babies and forever locked out of access to healthcare or higher education in the only country they have ever known.

Our patients are not lazy people who have come here to mooch off our wealth. They are hard workers. They often do heavy labor in all kinds of weather. They clean our houses. They care for our children. They dig the trenches for our sprinkler systems. They lay our carpets. These hard-working people support their extended families on both sides of the border on very little pay. And then when they get sick and can't work anymore, it is disastrous for the whole family. They are scared and want to get better so they can get back to work.

Emergency Medicaid will pay for their hospital care in a crisis, but once they get out, they are on their own. We often get follow-ups for chronic health problems that turned emergent. They are discharged from the hospital with minimal teaching, a prescription for a medication they cannot afford and are told to follow up with the doctor they don't have, or a specialist that won't see them without proof of insurance. It is typical to get diabetic patients who are not on any medications at all and lack basic health education.

These patients are not "non-compliant" as they are so often labeled when they come to the hospital in a crisis. They are human beings who are falling through the cracks. Some of the patients are pregnant. They come to the midwife at the clinic for prenatal care they would not get anywhere else. No woman should have to face a pregnancy without prenatal care.

In this country, we tend to criminalize illegal immigrants. Working at this clinic has forced me to alter my own personal and political views. It puts a human face on a world health crisis. Whatever my political leanings may or may not be outside the clinic, right in front of me are human beings who need help.

Some people rightfully argue that we have enough trouble taking care of our own disabled vets, homeless, mentally ill, and immigrants that are already here. Why should we be expected to take care of even more from a current political crisis across the sea? Why? Because we are in a position to help.

It is not their fault that they happened to be born in a country of violence and poverty. It is not their fault they were forced to carry their children away from bomb-riddled villages. In my paid hospital job, I don't judge my patients or their families if they are homeless, non-English speakers, citizens or non-citizens, insurance or private-pay, or pray to God by a different name than I do. Nursing has changed the way I think.

It is approaching Christmas time. I grew up being taught the story of pregnant Mary who endured door after door being shut in her face before finally being offered a place in a stable to birth her child. The free clinic is like Mary's stable. It is a humble place where people come when they need help. What has happened to our compassion?

My teenaged child came home from school yesterday, crying. She is bothered by the plight of the children of Syria that she sees in the news. She asked why people are not helping them. I hugged her and we cried together. She wants to volunteer at the clinic when she's older.

And that is why I wake up early on my day off, drive through rush-hour traffic, and work six hours a week for free. Because while we are still waiting for the broken world to be fixed by our leaders, people are still coming to our door and asking for help. I am just one nurse. I cannot fix the whole world, but I can make it a little better, one person at a time.

Lessons from the Free Clinic

About anon456, BSN, RN

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