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The Relentless School Nurse: Community Cafés, Conversations that Matter

By Robin Cogan, MEd, RN, NCSN, FNASN, FAAN posted 09-17-2017 14:04

  


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A Community Café is a structured conversation around a specific topic.  It is based on the premise that community members “already have within them the wisdom and creativity to confront even the most difficult challenges; that the answers we need are available to us; and that we are Wiser Together than we are alone.” (© 2015 The World Café Community Foundation.)

 The gatherings that I call Community Cafés are based on the World Café Model of small group conversations.  They are created to promote community engagement and empowerment through the power and art of conversation.  In my work with this important model, families in Camden, New Jersey preschools have shared the challenges and barriers in their children’s health care experiences. The focus of our discussions was what drives their decision-making to take their children to the Emergency Room for non-emergent issues. While a seemingly-narrow question, data suggest that this is a national phenomenon.

 The Community Cafés are conducted in schools, either at drop off, lunchtime or pick up, to be respectful of parents’ work schedules. So far, we have held six gatherings and asked one question:  What is working and what is not working in your healthcare experience?  Parents want to be asked and be heard.  They have had a lot to share and the themes identified were common throughout the Cafés.  Most prevalent was the desire for continuity of care, respectful customer service starting at the front desk, accurate translation services, and ease of making appointments, just to name a few.

The work has grown in ways that we would have never imagined when this project started in 2015.  It has taken a life of its own as the word about Community Cafés spreads.  The beauty is that they are easy to host and create a lot of enthusiasm and interest. Talking to parents and asking them to create community-based solutions should be standard operating procedure, not a novel idea.  Regardless, it has happened, and I am thankful for the support and acknowledgment that this project has received on a statewide and national level.

Grassroots, community-based work has been the highlight of my School Nursing experience. The collaboration with community partners like the Camden Coalition of Healthcare Providers has enabled us to bring the parents’ ideas back to the Pediatric providers through forming quarterly Pediatric-School Nurse-Community Roundtable.  Our meetings are held at 7:30 am, before school starts and office hours begin. I am including several links so you can read more about how our project has grown beyond the walls of the school and truly into the community.  Our parents are the experts in the lives of their children, and they must be included!

https://www.camdenhealth.org/school-nurses-pediatricians-team-better-care-camden/

https://rightcarealliance.org/article/conversation-action-community-cafe-sparks-grassroots-movement-camden-nj/#comments!loading

 

 

 

 

 

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