BSN Degree Track Chair & Recruiting Coordinator for Palm Beach Atlantic University’s Orlando Campus, Arnold Palmer Hospital Emergency Department RN, Professor, Certified Clinical Nurse Leader
“We screen everybody for the need for services, and then we have full-time navigators at every clinic to make sure we can meet with families, we can call families, we can navigate their referrals,” DeSpiegelaere said. “Then we actually partner with agencies that provide free diapers or free strollers, and we physically go get those resources and deliver them to families” (Ricciardi, 2023). Every Child Pediatrics is an amazing organization, and one offering healthcare and medications to any child. Throughout this semester of school, and over the last few weeks, I have been discussing the cost and expense of healthcare for our children. Often kids are underinsured and many parents cannot get the help they need, even with insurance. This organization in Denver, Colorado is truly stepping up and meeting a need for all children, whether they have insurance or not. They provide pediatric health care, despite the ability of parents or patients being able to pay for that care. They will take insurance but are a non-profit that doesn't withhold care, even if a patient or family cannot pay. They will accept insurance and operate on a sliding scale, but they also won't turn patients away if they simply don't have the means. Additionally, they have a nurse navigator who will fight and support each family and patient. The idea of having a nurse navigator who will deliver resources is an incredible idea and a role I would love to support. I know personally that when my daughter was sick with a form of gangrene during her treatments for leukemia and was not improving, our nurse navigator was the one who encouraged me to fight for my daughter and demand a change in her care. She encouraged me to take off my nurse hat and become the Mama Bear I needed to be to fight for my daughter. Nurse navigators see the need and fight to make it happen. The idea of a free clinic for all, and one with a nurse navigator, is just one way we can continue to provide for the kiddos who really need it. Organizations like Every Child Pediatrics should be applauded. As a healthcare organization, how can we model our clinics like this one? As healthcare providers, can we step up and fight with our actions and our finances, helping clinics like this one get started? As I have said some many times before, what are we doing to be the change we want to see? Let's join together and fight to provide care for children, no matter what the cost or the challenge might be. Isaiah 61:1: "The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is upon me, for the LORD has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to comfort the brokenhearted and to proclaim that captives will be released and prisoners will be freed." Ricciardi, T. (2023, November 23). Colorado nonprofit provides pediatric health care regardless of family’s ability to pay. The Denver Post. https://lnkd.in/ed8FfAsG
