For the nutrition services team at Providence Portland Medical Center, providing healthy, fresh meals for hospital patients, visitors and employees is an everyday event. But a monthly program to cook 100 meals for the homeless provides more than just nourishment – it feeds the souls of everyone involved.
The nursing program at Clatsop Community College on Oregon’s north coast prepares nurses to serve in local hospitals and clinics. When budget cuts threatened the program, Providence Seaside Hospital partnered with the college and helped stabilize the program. The result: Local students get careers in health care, and communities get well-qualified nurses.
Sacred places can be anywhere, and at Providence St. Vincent a small conference room has become a sacred place for Muslims. Hospital chaplains and local Muslim leaders created the prayer room. They’re also reducing cultural misunderstandings by hosting seminars for doctors, nurses and other health care professionals.
Education and health care in one easy location When low-income students in southern Oregon get the sniffles or other health complaints, they can see a nurse practitioner without leaving school. Providence Medford Medical Center helps bring preventive and primary care to schools where children don’t need appointments to get the care they need.
When Pam Lamb’s husband lost his job years ago, his family lost its health insurance. Two years later, Pam took advantage of free mammograms offered at Providence Milwaukie Hospital. Now her gratitude shines as she volunteers at hospital events.
Pain and unexplained spinal fractures came when Carrie Brennan had already lost her job, her health insurance and her home. A financial counselor at Providence Newberg Medical Center helped erase the unemployed mother’s worries about the cost of care so she could get needed cancer treatment.
After a lifetime of caring for her family, Herlinda Vega was blessed to have her family with her during the last days of her life. Providence Hospice of the Gorge offers cross-cultural care teams for Spanish-speaking patients and families.