Students in Community – Focus on Wellness Initiatives
Over the course of the term students in the primary health care clinical settings
engaged with many community partners in 
delivering Focus on Wellness Initiatives. A few of these were The Louis Brier Flu Campaign, Hillcrest Community Centre Health Fair, Mental Health Awareness: Beyond the Blues, Union Gospel Mission Foot Soak & Blood Pressure Clinic, and a health information session for residents and staff at Atira Women’s Resource Society. Students had several opportunities to conduct assessments and develop a health teaching plan for women’s support networks and youth attending community centres’ youth nights.
On November 14, World Diabetes Day, students from nursing and other health disciplines worked together using the Canrisk tool to conduct assessments and provide diabetes awareness teaching.
Partnership with the North Shore Multi-Cultural Society
During the fall of 2019 the North Shore Multi-Cultural Society (NSMS) welcomed a partnership with the UBC School of Nursing. Nursing students prepared and provided health promotion/wellness information sessions to a Chinese Immigrant 
Women’s audience. The goals of the presentations were to inform the attendees about: Mental Health in Canada—acceptance versus stigma and mental health medical services; the Canadian Medical System—patient protection laws and how to navigate the system; and Medical Terminology—definitions of English medical words and how to use them when seeking medical care. The NSMS contributed each information session topic and the UBC nursing students developed and delivered the information over three two-hour sessions throughout the month of October. Following each of the sessions, the attendees completed an evaluation form, the results of which reflected enhanced awareness of the topics presented. In addition, the students led the attendees through a number of mindfulness and self-calming strategies as an over-arching resource to enhance participants’ capacity for self-calming.
The sessions were well-attended and the attendees offered many positive anecdotal feedback comments. This partnership proved to be rich and symbiotic in nature and the UBC School of Nursing welcomes the opportunity to work in partnership with the North Shore Multi-Cultural Society in the future.
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