NWH Health Outreach Program Empowers Community Members
to Improve their Health
Program Simultaneously Offers Bedside Nurses
Opportunity to be Public Educators

Northern Westchester Hospital (NWH) is furthering its mission, which includes improving and protecting the health of individuals in the community, by offering free health lectures and screenings to residents throughout the Hospital's service area. Residents are invited to learn more about these monthly events by joining the NWH's mailing list (or by visiting the Hospital's Web site www.nwhc.net.). 

For the past five-and-a-half-years, Sue Gamache, RN, MSN, a staff member in the Public Affairs Department at Northern Westchester Hospital, has helped to ensure that residents of the Northern Westchester and Putnam County region, including the working poor and those without health insurance, have access to information to improve their health. As the Hospital's community educator, Gamache is in charge of setting up health lectures and free community screening events throughout NWH's service area.

 "I always gravitated toward public health-I liked the prevention aspect of it," said Gamache, who has been a nurse for over 30 years. "Public health isn't dramatic. You have to be patient and know that your work has an impact on people's lives." Over the past few years, the grant-funded health outreach program at NWH has grown tremendously, with Gamache now overseeing roughly 60 events a year. Health screenings for cholesterol, osteoporosis, diabetes, vascular disease, blood pressure, and more take place throughout the year at a variety of venues including Commerce Bank in Mount Kisco and Neighbors Link, a community center serving Latino immigrants also in Mount Kisco.

About half of the screening events are set up for the general public while the other half are specifically designed for underserved populations, including the working poor and those without health insurance. Screenings are one-to-one, with an NWH nurse providing the individual with their results, education about the topic, and doctor referrals if needed.

Each event is run by a rotating list of about 30 NWH nurses and technicians specializing in a variety of areas. One of those nurses, Pam Werner, RN, a 28-year resident of Patterson who has been working at the Hospital as a staff nurse for 22 years and currently works in ambulatory surgery, has been doing community outreach work for the past four years and said she got involved with the program to educate people who aren't receiving healthcare on a regular basis.

"It's a different type of nursing-I like the teaching aspect," she said. "I like giving people information that they wouldn't normally be exposed to. It gives you satisfaction to feel that you can help somebody."
To join the mailing list to receive information on upcoming free health lectures and screening events, contact Sue Gamache, RN at (914) 666-1273 or sgamache@nwhc.net.

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