News and Headlines

News and Headlines

Nurse Provide= s a Special Kind of Care to the Homeless

By Nancy Deutsch, RN, contributor

Michael O’Connor was= 30 years old when he started working in a homeless shelter, and his initial = job assignment was daunting.

“The first night I a= rrived, the supervisor didn’t have time to speak with me,” he recalle= d, “so he said, ‘make sure nobody dies.’ ” O’Connor spent the night watching the men sleep, making sure they continued breathing.

Thirteen years later he is= still helping to keep homeless men alive, but in an entirely different way. He = is now a nurse, and counsels men with HIV.

Prior to that first job in= a homeless shelter, Boston-based O’Connor had worked at odd jobs—including as a delivery person and working in a photo shop. Wh= en he started working with the homeless, “I said this is home for me.”

After various different jo= bs at the shelter, he saw that the clinic coordinator job appealed to him. That= job entailed changing dressings and doing diabetic teaching. “It was al= most everything I did, except give meds,” O’Connor said. “I thought, ‘I can do that, too.’ ”

So while continuing to wor= k at the clinic, O’Connor obtained his BSN at the University of Massachusetts in Boston.

While he no longer works a= t the Pine Street Inn where he first watched the homeless b= reathe, O’Connor is still in the same area, now employed by Boston Healthca= re for the Homeless Program, ensconced in a clinic at the Boston Medical Center. He works = only days, Monday to Friday.

While the hours are ideal,= the pay is less than what a nurse working in a hospital can expect to take ho= me.

“You sort of accept it’s a little less,” O’Connor said. “You’re working with the poor. There’s almost a spiritual aspect to it. That’s the trade-off.”

O’Connor said itR= 17;s estimated that there are 3000 homeless people in Boston, an area that attracts the hom= eless because it has a reputation for good hospitals that don’t turn the = poor away. “Boston is very liberal with healthcare. We’ve never had trouble getting medication for people with no money,” he said.

While there is no ‘t= ypical day’ in his line of work, O’Connor spends a lot of time educa= ting the homeless about HIV and about the importance of adhering to their medication regimen. Since medications are easily stolen among those sleep= ing in shelters, O’Connor said they hold the medication at the clinic, dispensing it in weekly tote boxes.

When the homeless come in = to get their medicine, O’Connor takes the opportunity to ask about things = like how well they are eating, or if there are addiction issues. He feels he h= as a unique rapport with the homeless because he is a nurse. “I think th= ere is an innate trust in nurses.”

When O’Connor first started in this line of work, he worked with a nurse who was very inspirational. She told O’Connor the pull for her was the stories. “People have amazing stories,” he said. “I can ask, ‘How did you become a homeless person?’ ”

When not at work, O’= Connor enjoys his 18-month-old son, and performs in a reggae band, playing the saxophone and a bit of piano. At times he brings his music to work, like a recent time when he played at a patient’s funeral. “That̵= 7;s another gift that I have that I weave into my job,” he said.

O’Connor is also pur= suing his nursing practitioner degree at the University of Mas= sachusetts Lowell but doubts he’ll leave working with the homeless.

“It’s sort of a calling,” he admits. “I feel like I have a knack for it.̶= 1;

But he wouldn’t reco= mmend it for all nurses. Not everyone can work with those who don’t take = care of themselves, he notes. However, “for people who get called to it, it’s rewarding on so many levels.

“We need people to d= rive buses and trucks too,” he said quickly, quashing the notion that his job is better than any other. “If you enjoy your job, you’re = in the right place.”

O’Connor has definit= ely found his right place. “I’ve learned a lot about spirituality from those patients,” he said. “In recovery, they are very prayerful. It’s a privilege to work with people like that.”