Nursing students exposed to economic adversity during poverty simulation

Nursing students were organized into small groups representing families with limited resources and income and were challenged to subsist for one “month” consisting of four 15-minute “weeks.” Each family addressed challenges like securing employment, childcare, housing and groceries – some even encountered (or turned to) crime and corruption.

“Participants assumed the roles of up to 26 different families facing poverty,” co-coordinator and Clinical Assistant Professor Joann Sands explains. “Some were newly unemployed, some were recently deserted by the ‘breadwinner,’ and others were recipients of TANF (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families), for example.”

Sands and Assistant Professor Kafuli Agbemenu, also a coordinator, placed great emphasis on the gravity of the exercise, stressing during the introduction and the debriefing that a simulation is “not a game.” The presence of several volunteers from the Schools of Nursing, Social Work and Public Health, among others, at community resource stations reinforced that message.

Agbemenu observed notable changes in the students’ attitudes and perceptions of poverty following the simulation. “Students were more able to develop their sense of empathy and to gain a better appreciation of barriers to healthcare,” she says.

In a “land of plenty,” it can be difficult to grasp the expansive reach of poverty. The reality is that poverty directly impacts millions of people in the United States; this reality contains the unavoidable truth that it indirectly impacts every life, whether personally or professionally.

In 2014, the official poverty rate in the U.S. was 14.8 percent. That’s more than 46 million American living below the 100% poverty threshold. In New York State, it’s over three million, and in the Buffalo metro area alone, there are almost 163,000 individuals falling into that category.

So why are nursing students participating in such a simulation? “Students should care about and have a basic understanding of poverty for a variety of reasons,” Sands explains. “One being [that] they have no idea where their patients are coming from, what experiences they have been through, and what struggles they face. They should also be aware of the various resources available in the community so they can relay this information to their patients.”

By Sarah Goldthrite