On February 2 and 9, BYU nursing students participated in the annual poverty simulation. The simulation is designed to help students better understand the challenges and compounding stressors that people in poverty experience.
Students are assigned a random scenario—some have jobs, some are unemployed; there are single parents, widows, and teenagers. They must balance work, school, accessing food, mortgage or rent, utilities, social services, child-care, and medical care, all while experiencing economic instability. Many nursing students are also assigned health needs—diabetes, pregnancy, asthma, etc.—yet in these simulations, hardly any students visit the clinic table until their needs become urgent.
If you're choosing between [treating] some health problems and putting food on the table... it's a hard choice for people.
Through the simulation, students get a small glimpse into the complications of poverty. By engaging in this learning activity, future nurses gain more empathy and awareness for circumstances of their patients’ lives, as well as more understanding of some of the barriers that prevent people from seeking medical care in the first place.
Something that I learned from this simulation was how small events can rapidly form a cascade. The stressors I’ve taken for granted became mountains in a world where money was scarce and resources were few.
After the simulation, students left with two important takeaways:
1) When people are experiencing economic insecurity, healthcare is usually one of their last priorities—this means patients only come in when they have no other choice, if they come in at all, and miss out on vital preventative care; and
2) There are many programs and resources to help people in need, but these resources are not always well known. Nurses can help their patients by pointing them in the direction of these resources, since healthcare goes beyond what happens in the hospital.
Ultimately, students walk away prepared to be more compassionate caregivers.
For a more detailed look at BYU College of Nursing’s poverty simulation, read here and here.