NUR 1030

My neighborhood is East Flatbush and I have been residing here for the past 16 years. It is a quite diverse neighborhood with people of African American, Carribean, and European origin just to mention a few. This neighborhood used to be very quiet with working people going to and coming from work with very little hanging out on the streets.

I started to slowly notice changes in the neighborhood with the presence of young males that started to hangout in the park, an abandon home, and streets. The first incident was the burning of the abandon house by smoking,  followed by a random shooting,  and the most recently one  a double shooting that left one seriously hurt and another one dead in P.S. 119 schoolyard. Sadly, this was the place he used to attend as a child and that also bared a huge  “STOP THE VIOLENCE” sign.

My greatest concern is this random act of unnecessary violence that seems to be escalating and has to be stopped. We as part of the community,  have to take the time to speak and listen to these young individuals and explain to them the devastation that their actions cause and how it affects everyone.We have to encourage and help them to find something to do with their time whether is to look for a  job or to  get an education so they can acquire tools that will be beneficial to them in the  future and this will also decrease the time that  they will spend on the streets getting in trouble or looking for trouble.

Ultimately, nurses can also have an impact on these young individuals whether it is in this community or another one. They can use their first hand experience through their jobs  to educate and explain how devastating the outcome of violence can be for  the families,  friends, and especially how in the end  it affect everyone  whether is directly or indirectly.

My name is Kenn.  During my community survey around my neighborhood of Woodmere, Long Isand NY, I can conclude that it is a peaceful and quiet neighborhood.  But that does not mean that there are no improvements that can be done.  There are a couple of problem that I notice as I walk around.  One of them is the fact that their is no hospitals around this neighborhood.  The nearest one is 15 minutes drive.  Around my neighborhood, we have doctors with their own practice and also a rehabilitation center.  Their is another problem in my neighborhood that I am sure most neighborhoods have, that are drug dealer are lingering around.  There are not many of them, but there are substantial amount of them that the things they sell go around from people in my old high school to people in the rehabilitation center.

The demographic of this neighborhood is pretty clear when you walk around and see the people walking during Saturday morning.  Most of the people are white and jewish.  This is not a problem, but in my opinion diversity in a community is a good way for people to learn about each other.  It would eliminate some of the stereotyping people concludes and make people appreciate the different culture.  As a nurse, this can impose different difficulty.  We have to get accustomed to their beliefs.  Also according to the demographics, restaurants around here will be kosher.  Which makes nurses have less choices of where to eat at if they are just to tired to cook.  Also some elderly Jewish people do not speak english very well, this can show that we might have a problem communicating to them about the procedure that we do as nurses.  This can get in the way of us nurses giving them the best care they can have.

But with all that negative, I also saw different services that benefits this community.  The Long Island Rail Road is one of them.  It is an easy way of traveling to the Manhattan or Brooklyn instead of driving and facing traffic.  Another benefit is that there are a lot of green spaces.  This means less pollution around the neighborhood and more shades.  There are also a lot of parks and school yard are accessible for residence to use.  For nurses who live around here, those different things can affect their well being.  The LIRR is easy access will let the nurse be able to travel to the city or brooklyn to meet up with friends which lets the nurse socialize.  The School yards can serve as a place where they can jog.  The green spaces gives nurses a healthy community to leave in.

After assessing my community, it has led me to the most concerning problem of it.  The main problem in Kew Gardens are the increase development of townhouses.  According to Ms. Sylvia Hack, these development is what she calls “architectually insignificant buildings”  The building of new townhouses around the area are very obstructive to the flow of traffic in the neighborhood.  Development of such buildings are taking the space for public parking lots for the residents of the neighborhood.  Living closely around Talbot Street and Lefferts Blvd., it really does look like a narrow pathway that only two cars can fit in the street.  It is not even wide enough to make an easy U-turn, and due to some irresponsible drivers, some parks too far away from the curb, and others do not adhere to the speed limit policy of the area that put residents and others at risk for vehicular accidents.  The nurse can address these problems by talking with city officials about limiting town houses development and promoting more public parking space, enforcing a strict rule on speed limit breakers, space availability for pedestrians, child safety crossing symbols and other precautions, and informing residents about all these issues.  In doing so might promote availability of the roads quicker access to street and highways, and for healthcare; ambulances which comes in big and wide vehicles will have easier access to the roads.

Welcome Professional Nursing Students to Fall 2011 and the beginning of your nursing career!