School of Nursing Scrapbook 1979

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SAN DIEGO, CALIFORN A, WED ESDAY MORNING, MAY 17 1978

Backcountry Window Opens Eyes To Health-Care Services By BETH OHR staff Writer, TIie san Diego Union

people. Many moved into the area because it is quiet and they expected it to. be cheaper. In reality, it is more expenSive. Food costs are higher and, because of the long distances, transportation expense is a , lot greater." On the credit side, however, the nurses found the people know and look out for each other. Senior citizen groups are strong, a trend is growing toward greater

Not too long ago, a man living in San Diego County's rural Mountain Empire area was choppi11g wood when the ax flew off the handle and lodged in his chest. He was rushed to the Mountain Health Project Clinic at Campo, a comparatively isolated area, but one with the advantage of mod- ern technology. . . When he arrived, the nurse practitioner was there alone - she is on duty Monday through Friday. A physician is there only one day a week. But, on other days, a ·closed-circuit television screen gives the doctor a distant view of emergencies. He and the nurse use the screen as a medium for working together. That day, she used the television equip– ment to show the doctor the location of the ax. He, in turn, told hPr exactly how the man was to be positioned and treated until the nearest available physician arrived. The man recovered. An important factor in his recovery was that the person who took him to the clinic knew that it was there. Until recently, the vast majority of Mountain Empire inhabitants were seri– ously lacking in knowledge about available health care. A new awareness is growing in the area because of a project completed by Marlese Hartoch and Hanne Nielsen, seniors at the University of San Diego's Philip Y. Hahn School of Nursing. Registered nurses - Hartoch was grad– uated from Mercy Hospital School of Nurs– ing in Denver, and Nielsen from. Stamford (Conn.) Hospital School of Nursmg - the young women will receive their B.S. de– grees at USD Sunday. Early this month they picked up 5,000 newly printed copies of another document important to their education: The "Health Care and Related Services Directory" which they compiled for back<.:ountry resi– dents. The 12-page directory and the "Window on the Backcountry" survey which preced– ed it were written as a senior class project, selected to meet a need the nurses discov– ered at the start of the school year. Hartoch and Nielsen devoted "clinic" hours for the first semester of this school year to home nursing care for the ill in backcountry communities. Their patients were among the 3,000 persons living in the sparsely populated 440 square miles including Campo, Camer– on Corners, Live Oak Springs, La Posta, Jacumba, Lake Morena, Boulder Oaks, Boulevard, Bankhead Springs and Tierra del Sol. · Reaching widely separated homes meant long rides through handsome rock– strewn hills, beside flat fields of grazing cows and goats and across land covered with trees, brush and cactus - all verdant from recent rains. • The area had a natural appeal for the two. Hartoch is from Winnemucca, Nev., a rural community of about 3,000. Nielsen grew up on a farm near the small town of Ringkobing, Denmark When they talked with each other about their work, they found they shared the same pleasure in the countryside and had come up against all of the same problems in the Mountain Empire area. "I think the area may be the most imptlvBr,shed in San Diego County," Har– toch said. "A ll;lrge part of the employment is on liUle farms and in small stores. Some of the people work for the Border Patrol, Forestry Service or at jobs in San Diego. "There is a large population of retired

'There is a large pop– ulation of retired peo– ple. Many moved into the Mountain Empire area because it is quiet and they expected it to be cheaper.'

use of health-care services and the per centage of services, related to the popula tion, is high. "The number of service actually surprised us," Nielsen said. "But the people didn't know too much about them " Hartoch added. "This turned out to be ~ two-way problem. Residents lacked information on the services avail– able and the health-care providers were poorly informed about each other." Nielsen began to think of ways to set up an exchange of information. At the same time Hartoch started to concentrate on how 'to let people know of services avail– able to them. "When the time came to dectde on a senior project for our final semester, we found it ready-made in the backcountry,•· Hartoch said. "We also had built up a rapport with the people and wanted to keep on working with them," Nielsen said. With that start, the women began a systematic compilation of facts gathered directly from the health-care facilities and the people they served. The results, re– corded in the women's report, bore out their initial conclusion that lack of public education was a major drawback in meet– ing health-care needs. "Everyone was supercooperative," Har– toch said. "We met with agency staffs and

Hanne Nielsen, above, checks patient ,1 hile }.,f~rlese_ Hali:och, center, fills supply cabinet at Mountai'! Health Pro)ect 1~ Campo. Registered nurses and seniors at University of San !)ieg_o, N1else'! an1 Hartoch compiled directories of health ca~e services in_ San Diego s Mountain Empire area. Below, they talk with Jack !1amsh,_ language, speech and hearing therapist who travels to Mountain Emp1re Schools in mobile classroom van in background.

Windows of the pharmacy on a small business corner in Campo now are covered with 'Close Out Sale' signs, sad evidence that one of the health ser– vices listed in a new directory soon will be gone.

other health care professionals for inter– views, followed up with written question– naires. "We then asked 50 residents to fill out questionnaries about themselves, health services they used and others they felt were needed." To get random samples of information, the women simply asked the cooperation of the first 10 people to enter grocery stores in five Mountain Empire communi– ties. (!:ontinued on D-2, Col.4)