Free Clinics
Are the Ideal Workplace for Some Health Professionals
by Megan
Malugani
Summary Serving the poor can be exhausting but highly rewarding.
Those willing to sacrifice pay for patients can thrive in free clinics.
Health professionals who are employed by free clinics say there's no
place they'd rather work. Despite draining days and low paychecks, free-clinic
employees enjoy enormous job satisfaction.
"This work feeds my heart. I feel I can make a difference, and that's the payment
for me," says Kim Hildebrand, a certified nurse midwife who works at San Francisco's
Haight Ashbury Free Clinic and recently helped open the Women's Community Clinic, a center
devoted exclusively to women's health.
Hildebrand works with women of all ages who are homeless or one step away from living
on the streets. Her clients' problems range from urinary tract infections, to massive
fibroids and uterine bleeding, to sexually transmitted diseases.
Because she isn't under constant pressure to see a high volume of patients or bring in
a certain amount of income, Hildebrand can provide top-notch care and develop
relationships with clients that her counterparts in other settings can't. "We have
the luxury of spending quality time with patients," she says.
The clients' needs are often overwhelming, however. "It's challenging getting
clients hooked up with the right resources so they get the help they need. As much as the
staff and all the volunteers try, we can't do everything for everybody," Hildebrand
explains.
There aren't enough hours in a day to treat everyone who seeks help at a free clinic,
agrees Sister Marge Novak, the only full-time healthcare provider at Raphael Community
Free Clinic in Kerrville, Texas. Free clinics, which stay afloat with the assistance of
government grants, public-health funds and private donations, often have small paid staffs
and rely heavily on volunteers.
At Raphael Clinic, Novak sees between 500 and 600 patients a month for prenatal care,
chronic conditions like diabetes and arthritis, and acute problems, she says. Most of the
Raphael Clinic's patients are working people who don't qualify for Medicaid but can't
afford insurance premiums, she says.
Novak says she'll never get burned-out in her line of work, because helping people who
have fallen through society's cracks is so rewarding. "It's a way you can still work
as a health professional but not be part of the business that healthcare has become,"
she says. "If health professionals really want to help people and make a difference
one patient at a time, this is the best way to do it."
Interested in learning more about free clinics? The National Free Clinic Directory
and A Free Clinic: Starting Out (a manual on how to start free clinics) are
published by the Free Clinic Foundation of America and the Bradley Free Clinic of Roanoke,
Virginia. Write to: the Free Clinic Foundation of America, 1240 Third St. SW, Roanoke, VA
24016 or call (540) 344-8242.
|
