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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Public Health
Sec. Public Health Education and Promotion
Volume 12 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2024.1477436

Types and cost of wellness services provided by a neighborhood-based academic nursing center

Provisionally accepted
HAE-RA HAN HAE-RA HAN 1,2*Yoon-Jae Lee Yoon-Jae Lee 3Jennifer J Lee Jennifer J Lee 1Chun-An Sun Chun-An Sun 1Ophelia Dapaah-Gyimah Ophelia Dapaah-Gyimah 1Patty Wilson Patty Wilson 1Catherine Ling Catherine Ling 1Eric Slade Eric Slade 1
  • 1 School of Nursing, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, United States
  • 2 Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, United States
  • 3 School of Nursing, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Background: Despite increased insurance coverage since 2010, racial and ethnic minorities in the United States still receive less medical care than White counterparts. The Johns Hopkins School of Nursing's Center for Community Programs, Innovation, and Scholarship (COMPASS Center) provides free wellness services, aiming to address healthcare disparities in the neighborhoods.Objective: To delineate the types and cost of wellness services provided by the COMPASS Center.The study employed a secondary analysis design, utilizing Qualtrics surveys to assess wellness service data from 2017 to 2022 at two main program sites-Wald center and House of Ruth, Maryland.The analysis covered 2,194 encounters (826 at Wald center and 1,368 at House of Ruth, Maryland). Most encounters at both sites served African American/African/Black and lowincome individuals. Examples of wellness services included pre-employment exams and immunizations, health literacy and self-care management education, health insurance advice, parenting support, and referrals to community resources. Cost analysis revealed varying expenses per encounter, with medium costs ranging from $5.45 to $14.91 across sites, considering service type and duration, including staff salaries, encounter numbers, and service hours.The COMPASS Center delivers essential wellness services supplementing traditional healthcare to disadvantaged community members through student engagement and academic support. The next generation of healthcare teams is learning with and from the community creating a holistic educational experience in building skills outside of institutional

    Keywords: Community center, Wellness services, Vulnerable population, Nurses, cost

    Received: 07 Aug 2024; Accepted: 16 Dec 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 HAN, Lee, Lee, Sun, Dapaah-Gyimah, Wilson, Ling and Slade. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: HAE-RA HAN, School of Nursing, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, 21205, Maryland, United States

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.