Today, we’re excited to share a heartfelt reflection from Anna, a dedicated nursing student who recently completed a clinical rotation at Imagine!. In this post, she offers a glimpse into her transformative experience working with individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD) in community settings.
Join us as she recounts her experiences, the relationships she built, and the lessons learned during her time with Imagine!. We hope her reflections inspire you as much as they have inspired us.
I walked into my first week of clinical here at Imagine! with no idea what to expect, but I was quickly welcomed into a collaborative team that is genuinely passionate about what they do and shared that passion with me each week. I thought one of the best ways to reflect on my time here was to pull from some of my journal entries that expressed how I felt each week.
I worked in a long-term care facility for a summer, where I interacted with residents with a variety of intellectual and developmental disabilities. Most of these individuals were in that facility because they did not have family willing to take care of them and could not afford a different care option. It was heartbreaking to see those individuals in a long-term care facility because they did not receive the level of care and attention they needed. The teams at the nursing home were usually caught up with other residents who required more demanding care. After my first home visit with Imagine!, I was relieved and happy to see that there are alternative options to long-term care facilities for individuals with additional needs. The couple at the host home I had the pleasure of visiting was very welcoming and had an incredible relationship with the client living with them. It was amazing to see that the client could live in an environment conducive to their social and physical needs.
I had an interesting conversation about issues surrounding the family model of care. My mom has worked with families receiving funds for the care they provide to their children with disabilities. While I had heard about this family care model, I had not fully considered the challenges that may arise with it. The conversation I had at clinical opened my eyes to the difficulties faced when asking family members to document all care they provide to their loved ones and label all medications. Many families have cared for their loved ones at home for years and have developed their own ways of doing things over time. Adapting to this change can be very challenging for caregivers, but following policies and procedures is essential for these families to receive funding for their role as caregiver.
I had similar reactions to my experience this week as I did during my first week at clinical when doing a home visit. Going into this week, I was really excited to visit one of the group homes. I didn’t have any expectations regarding what the group home would look like or the needs of the clients living there. When I arrived at the group home, I was amazed. The home was beautiful on the outside and well-kept on the inside. I met the three residents living there and was able to help my nurse change a suprapubic catheter for one of the clients. The residents in the home I visited have high medical needs and require assistance for most tasks. They are all wheelchair-bound but each has different functional levels. One of the residents was playing Yahtzee with the CNAs while I was there, which I thought was so cool. Another client was writing a children’s book in their room. I found it incredible how much time the Imagine! staff and CNAs could spend with the clients because, unlike staffing in most long-term care facilities, they don’t have to care for 15 high-need individuals. This is remarkable, and I would love to see more programs develop that incorporate host homes and apartment living like Imagine! does.
Throughout the past two months, I practiced the public health nursing roles of clinician, educator, advocate, and collaborator. I’ve learned that public health nursing is impactful because education allows us to reach and serve more individuals than we can through individual practice. Working with the IDD community has really opened my eyes to the importance of advocating for clients, particularly those who cannot manage their own care and rely on others to be attentive to their needs and identify gaps in their care.
I want to thank every member of this team who has welcomed me and played a role in my education this semester. Whatever I was doing each week, every experience I have had here at Imagine! has truly helped me grow as a nurse and prepared me for future interactions with patients and team members.
