University of Louisiana at Lafayette nursing students will offer health screenings to the city’s homeless and need the public’s help.
The event will be held from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. March 7 at St. Bernadette’s Clinic, 409 St. John St., in Lafayette. It will focus on preventive care.
Students enrolled in the College of Nursing and Allied Health Professions’ Community Nursing course will provide blood pressure and oxygen level checks, body mass index calculations, bone density screenings, and diabetes information.
They’ll also perform vision checks and provide free reading glasses to people who need them. Several companies that have partnered with the nursing college will provide lunch, blood sugar checks, socks, haircuts, snacks and rain ponchos.
Organizers call the event Giving HOPE – Homeless Outreach Providing Essentials – and they are turning to the public to help them secure those vital items, which include:
- lightly used or new men’s tennis or walking shoes;
- light, neutral color blankets;
- to-go foods, such as granola bars;
- lightly used or new backpacks;
- little combs or brushes;
- bandages;
- mints or gum;
- small tissue packets;
- hand wipes;
- nail clippers; and
- gift certificates in small amounts for fast food restaurants.
Donations can be dropped off at V.L. Wharton Hall, Room 322B through Monday, March 5. Contact nursing instructor Jessica McCarthy at (337) 781-1197 with questions.