“Sharp educates homeless” could be a new initiative by Sharp Memorial Hospital‘s 3 North Unit Practice Council, and Streets of Hope San Diego wants to give them a huge THANK YOU for coming out on Monday night to serve and educate our homeless community.

It’s inspiring that even though it was a short two hours…

The Sharp Memorial hospital 3 North UPC team took valuable time out of their schedules, and even changed their shifts around, to help prepare materials that supported our homeless community in learning about common health issues and infection prevention, as well as provide tangible materials that people truly need. Here’s what the 3 North UPC unit had to share about their experience serving San Diego’s homeless community with us:

“We, the 3 North Unit Practice Council (UPC),a team of nursing staff at Sharp Memorial Hospital, decided to participate in a community servicing activity to help with the homeless. We have many homeless patients that we take care of in the hospital daily and thought it was time to help out. Our goal was to extend the Sharp Experience and “our care philosophy — treating people, not patients, and transforming the health care experience for our entire community.” The Covid pandemic delayed us in planning, but we were excited to help out our community finally!

We decided to partner with Streets of Hope. At first, we organized a donation drive throughout Sharp Memorial Hospital to gather needs of the homeless. We were overwhelmed with the great turnout of donations from everyone. We loaded the back of a truck with clothing, food, hygiene products, blankets etc. The 3North UPC team coordinated their schedules for time off from the hospital to hit the streets of downtown to deliver the donated items. We walked tent to tent, visiting the homeless while providing some food, water, and any essentials they needed. We even created a poster of education topics on diabetes, high blood pressure, and infection prevention and educated those who were interested.

We were lead by Dan, one of the program directors for Streets of Hope, and learned that this vulnerable population were people who were at their lowest in their lives and that a simple “Hey, how you doing” can go a long way. It opened up many conversations of how they ended up on the streets. We even met some volunteering participants, whom through this program, were able to get off the streets. It’s inspiring that even though it was a short two hours, we could potentially inspire those by helping others in need.

It was also nice to be able to assist people outside of the bedside setting and hear what they really needed. Lastly, the Streets of Hope organization is impressive in that they meet weekly every Monday without skipping a beat just to give their time and truly care for the homeless. This Sharp group was truly inspired to hopefully start a tradition and continue in participating more in the future. Thanks for allowing us to participate in this wonderful experience!”

Thanks to the entire Sharp Memorial Hospital 3 North UPC team who came out to help us serve the San Diego homeless community. We are looking forward to having you join us on a regular basis on Monday nights!