St. Catherine Laboure Medical Clinic

Hey hey!

So this morning I went to St. Catherine's. When I got there, the physician's assistant and the doctor were waiting to greet me and tell me how happy they were. They told me that another student who used to volunteer there weekly from St. Joe's had found out that the "regular" volunteer (an older woman with a normal schedule) would be out on Monday. Without volunteers, it is very difficult for the clinic to run smoothly, so this student went to the clinic on Monday morning just to lend a helping hand. The doctor who founded the clinic is actually a St. Joe's grad and therefore knows how awesome our university is, but the P.A. could not stop singing the praises of SJU volunteers. She said we are far more committed and passionate than any of the volunteers she has had from Penn, Nova, Lasalle, etc. It was quite the compliment! And to continue boosting my ego, they asked me to help double check the patient finances this year. I have been volunteering there for two years and they are veryyy picky about who handles money, so I felt really honored that they trust me so much!

After all of this, I spent a long time copying a patient's chart. I was also able to get a few patients set up in rooms (aka take blood pressure and weight and then chat about life a bit) and to talk to a representative from Campus Philly who is trying to get people from the clinic to speak at a volunteer fair about the importance of public health.

I'm super excited because this Saturday I'll be going to a Presbyterian church with some people from St. Catherine's to run a blood pressure clinic. For some reason, people tend to love chatting when they have blood pressure cuffs on, and I always have the most interesting conversations while doing that! :)

<3 Carla