Free Report Sample on Arlington Free Clinic: Bridging the Gap in Healthcare Since 1994

Arlington Free Clinic is considered an innovative, community-based, volunteer-driven non-profit providing free but high-quality healthcare. Further, the focus of this clinic's service provision is to ensure that low-income and medically uninsured adult residents receive medical care. The clinic has been significant in filling the gap in the community since 1994 by providing necessary medical care for the most vulnerable individuals in the community (Arlington Free Clinic, 2020). The clinic also has about 500 medical and non-medical volunteers who have a comprehensive need to deliver health services onsite in the primary care setting and private offices for partner referrals. (Arlington Free Clinic, 2020).

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Arlington Free Clinic was determined by the dedication and generosity of volunteers and some donors to assist in saving a life. The organization was approved by the Department of health but did not receive funding from the federal government to support the operations of the institution's activities. Arlington Free Clinic identified the need to fill the gap of providing health care to vulnerable people based on existing statistics in the country. Besides, it is essential to note that the government's involvement in the management of public health is critical in setting the status and health needs by ensuring that the policies and standards are implemented accordingly (Arlington Free Clinic, 2020). For instance, it is determined that as of 2018, about 8.5% of people did not have health insurance at any point during the year (Arlington Free Clinic, 2020). Furthermore, uninsured people's rate is considered to be increasing, making it necessary for organizations such as Arlington Free Clinic to provide medical care to these groups of vulnerable people.

Arlington's free clinic was identified for community nursing teaching due to its objectives and philosophy established as an organization in the country. There are various reasons as to why this clinic is suitable for the teaching process. Arlington Free Clinic has nine free and income-based clinics within Virginia. Besides, these clinics are listed as free income-based health clinics under the health department of clinics in the country, the community health centers, and mainly focus on providing services to individuals who do not have insurance (Arlington Free Clinic, 2020). Secondly, the clinic was also selected for teaching due to its review of the information available for the array of services it provides, ranging from free to sliding scale services. Other than these, their website also indicates that there are various services offered by the clinics, which consist of and are not limited to the following. The clinic services available include dental clinic services, pediatric health clinic services, diabetic clinic services, medical clinic services, women, and adult health clinic services.

The focus on the community nursing teaching plan determines the need to assess diabetes mellitus in adult populations. In the contemporary world, it is noted that there is an estimated of about 200 million people having diabetes (Arlington Free Clinic, 2020). Further, the disease is considered a significant cause of premature mortality and morbidity, making it a costly disease among the affected individuals, their families, and society (Arlington Free Clinic, 2020). However, the condition can be managed by using reasonable glycaemic control, blood pressure, and a regular examination for complications based on timely interventions. In this regard, it is essential to note the existing evidence of this group and the teaching needs that practitioners need to consider. The standards for care provided for older patients with diabetic conditions need to address components of proper care, treatment goals, and the tools used to evaluate the quality of care (Arlington Free Clinic, 2020).

Based on various studies, it is noted that older adults selected for this teaching learn best by being taught the right procedure for the guidelines for their care management in terms of oral medication, and assessing the possible need for social support, among others. However, it was noted that older adults more than 70 years old required social support from either nurses or family members (Arlington Free Clinic, 2020). These individuals may assist them in assessing transportation issues, and cognitive and functional status, among others. The aim of understand the best ways in which this population can learn to help meet the standard guidelines necessary to maintain the quality of care for the affected individuals. Teens are most responsive to learning by having someone close to their age talk to them about their experience to share with the guardian or parents about their health status.

Assessment of Readiness

The diabetic population assessment is critical since it requires continuous medical care and patient self-management education to assist in preventing acute complications that may arise. Moreover, the idea is to minimize the risk of long-term complications by understanding how these groups of people can learn and react to the medication. Notably, it is evident that diabetic individuals would be willing to learn more about the condition than those undergoing screening (Beverly et al., 2016). Substantially this is because they feel compelled to manage their health to avoid acute complications that may take place. On the other hand, practitioners need to simplify the process involved, such as pathophysiology, medication usage, blood glucose monitoring, planning for the meals, and entire management of the disease by acquiring the necessary skills.

Older patients often tend to learn more than younger ones because they feel as though it is a temporary issue ahead of their long lifetime. Understanding the factors that influence the use of contraceptives among diabetic teens can be categorized based on various measures. The involvement of the parenting level of education is one of the elements. Parents may influence their teens to take contraceptives in their best interests (Weinger et al., 2014). Similarly, the aspect of gender is another factor that may influence the use of contraceptives. The majority of the female would prefer the use of these contraceptives more than their counterpart males due to genetics in their sexuality.

The need to determine motivation aspects for the individuals affected with diabetic conditions is another element to assess the readiness for teaching purposes. Diabetes of different ages among the affected population contributes to people's motivation to get the necessary education about the condition. Overweight and obesity are some of the trends among the aging population that have been determined as potential risk factors, causing an increase in diabetes in the world. Therefore, it will be necessary to provide professional knowledge for health education, prevention, and treatment options for diabetes (American Association of Diabetes Educators, 2016). For instance, providing measures to lose weight, such as having nutritious meals like foods with fiber, drinking a lot of water, and participating in physical activities, can be critical. Similarly, patients need to be advised to eat healthier to lower their blood pressure and minimize the risk of cardiovascular disease. The analogies explaining pathophysiology can be useful as a diabetic educator, teaching about the comparison of the insulin in the body is essential in motivating some patients. The main concept to be underpinned in this situation is making necessary comparisons and simple terms and objects that can be familiar for people to understand the complications involved in the pathophysiology (Weinger et al., 2014). The older adults can be taught more about the general principles of dietary management of diabetes to be used. Sometimes the appetite can also diminish, but the use of nutrient-dense foods can be encouraged as well.

The previous teaching's experimental background focused on traditional approaches of educating patients to have disease-oriented and based compliance. The situation entails the idea that when the patients disagreed with a plan of care, and could not even afford medications or even needed an alternative therapy, they were viewed not to be compliant. Further, good patient outcomes suffered when the patient felt judged or even dismissed (Weinger et al., 2014). There were also some of the major challenges that were experienced that targeted ethnic and religious diversity. The dieticians had to be familiar with customs, food habits, and practices in cooking from these various ethnic groups. Similarly, the awareness of enormous diversity within a given group of patients was also experienced since no assumptions were made (American Association of Diabetes Educators, 2016). Various factors can change based on the need to be open to learning at this time. Taking the role of health coaches instead of considering health indicators. Substantially, this entails creating a partnership with the patients to assist them in improving health outcomes. Unlocking these traditional measures entails improving barriers of lack of lime to ensure low priority in acute settings (Long, 2018). For instance, the establishment of time for diabetic teaching can be found in regular interactions with patients. These interactions can be critical in making formal sessions to assess their understanding of the medication's resolution and action.

The current status of the population being taught is mainly from Arlington City in Virginia State in America. The majority of the population being taught is mostly whites, followed by Hispanics, some Black Americans, and Asians. The majority of the level of education of the population is a university. Further, it is also determined that these patients are specialized in either general business management or administration and engineers. The most common language is English which is spoken by the majority of people in the region. The other language is Spanish spoken widely after English in the area (Beverly et al., 2016). The existing households of Arlington are determined to have a median annual income of about 100 thousand dollars. Even though this annual income is more than the average income of people in the United States of America, it is noted that there is a variance in the gap between the poor and the wealthy. As a result, this makes it possible for extremely poor people who cannot access public medical care and opt to attend Arlington's free clinic for medication.

Learning cannot be achieved without understanding the potential barriers that are experienced in the process. Teaching individuals affected by the diabetic condition is to improve their health outcomes from either therapy or medication they are undergoing. The critical issues for most practitioners to meet their objectives in improving diabetic patients' health care on the functional status and independence set for communication towards the clinical settings. One of the barriers is that most patients feel that the situation is out of their hands to manage (Weinger et al., 2014). Substantially, this is experienced since they think or have undergone an acute level of the complication, making them vulnerable to any circumstance of the disease's outcome. As a result, these patients often opt not to discuss any medications needed to achieve treatment goals (Long, 2018). Lack of motivation and money to buy these medications needed to improve the health of the patients. Lack of motivation is mainly experienced for this aging population since they are affected mostly to take part in some essential activities such as physical activities.