Laredo Medical Center Hosts Health Fair To Promote Preventative Health Care Laredo Morning Times
Laredo Medical Center Hosts Health Fair To Promote Preventative Health Care – Laredo Morning Times https://collincountynewsonline.com/laredo-medical-center-hosts-health-fair-to-promote-preventative-health-care-laredo-morning-times/
Christian Alejandro Ocampo, LMTonline.com / Laredo Morning Times
Sep. 21, 2022Updated: Sep. 21, 2022 3:29 p.m.
Laredo Medical Center staff, TAMIU and LC nursing students gathered and hosted booths during the Healthy Connections Fair to promote healthy aging and practices on Tuesday, Sept. 20, 2022.
Christian Alejandro Ocampo
In conjunction with Healthy Aging Month, Laredo Medical Center invited residents of all ages to their Healthy Connection Fair on Tuesday to promote preventative measures and a general good sense of the services available in Laredo.
The inaugural event also was an opportunity for hospital staff, nursing students and residents to come together and work together in the spirit of stronger health care.
“Whether you are 25 years old, 50 or better, the goal of this event is to raise awareness on the positive aspects of growing older,” Jorge Leal, FACHE and CEO of LMC said. “The fair will feature exhibits by many of our health care providers to help you take charge of your physical and mental health, as well as learn about healthy eating, fall prevention and much more. All of these factors contribute to successful aging.”
Leal added that the goal of the fair was to kickstart and encourage residents to visit a doctor for initial check-ups and monitoring one’s own levels. These routine check-ups should be increased as one gets older, and the fair can be a starting point to get on that track. With the inaugural fair done, residents can most likely expect similar or more booths to be set up next year, that include booths for drawing blood, stroke prevention, heart care, sleep aid, blood pressure and more.
“That’s the whole point of this fair, bringing everybody together as we continue to age, and not going through critical moments because there is so much that can be done by actually going to speaking with a physician or a clinician, nurse practitioner or physician assistant,” Leal said. “And by you having that conversation with your doctor, there is so much you can prevent at the same time.”
The fair was held at the LMC main entrance foyer, where attendees were greeted by nursing students and booths with specialized focuses on different aspects of health. In one booth, sleep and sleep aids could be discussed, while in the next one strokes were the main topic.
As Laredo’s biggest health issues, hypertension and diabetes both are causes for concern among residents, and LMC Stroke Coordinator Chantel Molina hosted the stroke booth to inform residents about the causes and symptoms of a stroke.
She outlined the BE FAST campaign, which is as follows:
B — Balance.
E — Eyes.
F — Face.
A — Arms.
S — Speech.
T — Time.
Molina said that doctors recommend and urge anyone who experiences or recognizes stroke symptoms to rush to the hospital. Waiting for too long may exacerbate any disability or their mortality rate. A treatment window is 24 hours, and LMC has a medication that breaks down the clot blocking the area in brain, but the window for that medication is 4-5 hours.
“Stroke is not very discriminating,” Molina said. “Pediatrics can have strokes, we are seeing adults as of 30-40 years old, and a lot of them, its not just minute numbers. Again, it doesn’t discriminate, strokes can be seen throughout your lifespan.”
In August alone, LMC treated 59 strokes. Molina said that it was a relatively higher number than previous figures recorded. She explained that heat strokes were not the same as the strokes LMC has treated, which are from brain clots due in part to family health issues, diabetes and COVID-19, with smoking being a major risk factor.
“A lot of this is very preventive,” Molina said. “Don’t get me wrong, there’s people that do everything. They take their meds, they control their blood pressure, diabetes, and they still have the stroke. Most cases are that they did not take care of themselves.”
Blood pressure checks were also available, with attendees and nursing students from both Laredo College and TAMIU striking up conversations with those at their booths. The setting was an opportunity for residents to meet the new nursing talent and for the students to get hands on creating a bond with Laredo’s patients.
Calixto Cerna, a TAMIU fourth-semester nursing student, praised the university’s nurturing of nursing students’ careers and the focus on ethical practice. He said that he feels that he has been prepared adequately when interacting with patients and highlighted the avoidance of simple interactions without creating a relationship with said patients.
“Its more patient centric care where we want to treat them based on how the patient themselves is presenting and experiencing the disease,” he added, stating he takes his experience to the hospital setting in order to be the pillar of support patients look for in their health care staff.
Between the course at school and the rotations at the hospital, Cerna said that students to learn more in-depth in the hospital setting while also making connections with hospital staff.
Cerna, whose mother was a nurse, said that her encouragement and the flexibility of a nurses’ specialization led him to take on the nursing career. With the drive to help others and the flexibility of jumping into the ICU or any specialty, he ultimately wishes to teach nursing after a long and helpful career at the hospital.
As a first semester LC nursing student, Lindsey Reyes said that her class is currently learning the fundamentals of nursing and called the connections fair an eye-opening experience in regards to meeting with patients, hospital staff and fellow nursing students. This benefits her communication with the community and is an aspect of a tough program that rewards those that put their all into it, she said.
As a former city employee at the Laredo Health Department, Reyes emphasized the importance of outreach in the community to promote healthy living and health check-ups at schools and rural areas with residents who may not have the capacity to visit the hospital.
As a medically underserved community, residents in the colonias face the added obstacle of not always having reliable transportation to health care facilities. Reyes said that reaching out to the community is a vital area of health care and was a major component of her seven-year position at the health department.
Leal said that to address the medically underserved designation, more recruitment efforts have been made to attempt to bring more providers to the community. He added that with more staff brought to Laredo, that could shorten the federal designation.
