{"id":17735,"date":"2010-07-23T08:15:09","date_gmt":"2010-07-23T12:15:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=17735"},"modified":"2011-05-31T12:40:32","modified_gmt":"2011-05-31T16:40:32","slug":"back-on-their-feet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2010\/07\/back-on-their-feet\/","title":{"rendered":"Back on Their Feet"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"<p>Sherry<\/a>
Sherry Bassi, assistant professor of nursing, works with a patient at a foot care clinic in New London. Photo by Barbara Slater<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Nursing faculty and students are helping homeless people get back on their feet by providing foot care free of charge at a drop-in clinic in New London.<\/p>\n

\u201cMany homeless people have lost access to transportation, so their feet take a terrible beating \u2013 from both overuse and worn-out or ill-fitting shoes,\u201d says Sherry Bassi, an assistant professor of nursing, who launched the clinic in conjunction with the Southeastern Connecticut Visiting Nurse Association at New London\u2019s Homeless Hospitality Center<\/a>.<\/p>\n

She describes one homeless young man who recently visited the clinic, wearing sneakers with huge holes in the soles: \u201cDeep blisters covered the soles of both his feet. He was in awful pain,\u201d she says. \u201cWe see individuals whose corns and calluses have become so deep and painful that they dominate the person\u2019s whole outlook on life.\u201d<\/p>\n

The clinic is consistent with the School of Nursing<\/a>\u2019s focus on care for vulnerable populations. Bassi says the experience of working at the clinic is valuable for both faculty and students.<\/p>\n

\u201cServing the underserved in our communities \u2013 especially the homeless \u2013 is a particular passion for public health nurses like me,\u201d she says. \u201cAnd taking care of homeless individuals is an amazingly valuable experience for our students, as they fulfill their service-learning responsibilities.\u201d<\/p>\n

Volunteers provide foot soaks, reduce corns and calluses, trim nails, and provide clean, white socks and a pair of flip-flops for use in shelter showers. They offer special foot care services to diabetic patients, too, including education, neuropathy testing, and support in accessing professional care and even obtaining orthotics.<\/p>\n

Since homeless people often use emergency rooms for primary care, volunteers seek to identify those clients not yet connected with local community health centers, and make referrals to case managers and social service agencies.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe clinic has given our students real insight into the importance of professional case management, too,\u201d says Bassi. \u201cOur clinic is inexpensive to operate. It\u2019s not high-tech nursing at all. But it\u2019s gratifying to know that 45-or-so minutes of focused nursing attention can make a dramatic difference in quality of life for another human being. That\u2019s made the service especially meaningful to our students.\u201d<\/p>\n

The clinic also helped dispel some students\u2019 stereotypes about homeless populations.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost are shocked that our clients\u2019 mean age is 32,\u201d Bassi says. \u201cStudents take care of clients from all walks of life, some their own age, a few pregnant and alone who, for whatever reason, now live on the street.<\/p>\n

\u201cMany students have told me their foot-clinic service learning experience has opened their minds and hearts,” she adds, “bridged the gap between theory and practice, and made them better nurses.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nursing faculty and students provide foot care for homeless people at free clinic in New London.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[43],"class_list":["post-17735","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-21 05:26:15","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17735","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17735"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17735\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17926,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17735\/revisions\/17926"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17735"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17735"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17735"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=17735"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=17735"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}