NURS 317L Community Experience Project Report: Sherman Oaks Hospital

This report details a community experience project conducted at Sherman Oaks Hospital. The project involved observing a urologist and a nurse, focusing on the hospital's multi-specialty clinic, which offers a wide array of services including clinical lab services, reconstruction and wound healing, and various surgical procedures. The report provides an overview of the hospital's purpose, the population it serves (including geographical and demographic data), and the professional services available. It also addresses social issues impacting the community, such as low literacy and lack of health insurance, and examines the hospital's communication strategies with both its internal staff and the broader community. The hospital serves a large population within the San Fernando Valley and surrounding areas, catering to diverse needs and demographics, and the report emphasizes the importance of patient-centered communication and multilingual services.

Running Head: COMMUNITY EXPERIENCE PROJECT 1
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Running Head: COMMUNITY EXPERIENCE PROJECT 2
Community Experience Project
The organization is Sherman Oaks Hospital located in 4911 Van Nuys Boulevard, Suite
307, Sherman Oaks California, 91403. The purpose of the organization is to offer services to
patients in general pain and management services. It offers nutrition services, clinical lab
services, pharmacy, reconstruction, and wound healing center, radiology, respiratory therapy
services, surgical procedures, comprehensive care for joint replacement, imaging services, senior
behavioral health service, maternity services, outpatient and inpatient care.
Moreover, the hospital serves several patients of the San Fernando Valley with a bed
capacity of 153, and over 700 employees and multiple doctors including specialists in GI and
urologists. For instance, on that particular day, the volunteer encountered a patient who suffered
from stress after delivery, another patient was getting treatment for a kidney infection and was 6
months pregnant. The multi-specialist clinic handles each situation carefully with a team of
specialists and doctor. Therefore, it shows that the hospital is well staffed and handles a big
population with specializing medical, hyperbaric, diagnostic and surgical medical services
(Wasserman and Riopelle) .
Sherman Hospital is situated in a geographical area with a zip code of 25 cities and thus it
serves communities of west hills, Porter Ranch, North Hills, Simi Valley, Burbank, Encino,
Sherman Oaks, Van Nuys, Panorama City, Los Angeles, Pacoima, Calabasas, Woodlands,
Chatsworth, San Fernando, Valley Village, North Hollywood, Sylmar, Studio City, Tarzana, Sun
Valley, Reseda, Granada Hills, Canoga Park and Northridge. The hospital serves up to 1.5
million people within San Fernando Valley, Ventura County, and LA county. Based on the
report by Thomson Reuters and Nielsen company of 2012, the population is equally distributed
between males and females served by the hospital (Pennel, McLeroy and Burdine) . Also, the

Running Head: COMMUNITY EXPERIENCE PROJECT 3
hospital's catchment area population is 1,529,861, out of which 21.2% are adults over 65 years
old. Also, females aged 85 and above are twice the number of males with 31,587 females and
15,793 males. In addition, Calabasas has the highest population of graduates with a degree. The
community experience low literacy levels thus unable to gain employment opportunities. In
addition, they do not have health insurances thus unable to access better health care services.
The professional services available in Sherman Oaks Hospital reconstruction and wound
healing services that is an outpatients care treatment center specialized in assisting patients with
chronic and non-healing wounds. The facility uses a comprehensive approach in assessing and
evaluating wounds and then utilizing various approaches such as advanced vascular diagnostic,
plastic and reconstructive surgeries, interventional procedures, mechanical debridement and
hyperbaric medicine to treat wounds (Londrino, Granata and Tatangelo) .
The organization communicates with the larger population through an enhanced patient-
centered mode of communication with a unified communication strategy that connects patients
with the service providers (Bindman, Marian Mulkey and Kronick) . Besides, the hospital is
located in an area dominated by people speaking Hispanic, Latino, and Spanish with majority
people unable to speak in English, health information is provided in multiple languages and
through several sources. Health care providers also assist patients to understand the material
presented to them and use written format to assist their patients in following prescriptions.

Running Head: COMMUNITY EXPERIENCE PROJECT 4
References
Bindman, Andrew B, MPP Marian Mulkey and Richard Kronick. "A path to universal coverage
and unified health care financing in California." San Francisco. http://healthcare.
assembly. ca. gov/sites/healthcare. assembly. ca. gov/files/Report Final 3\_13\_18.
(2018).
Londrino, Francesco, Granata, Antonio, Tatangelo, Paola, Boiceff, Slave, Dess{\`\i}, Gerardo,
Palumbo, and Roberto "Iodide mumps following vascular access management." The
journal of vascular access 19.5 (2018).
Pennel, Cara L, McLeroy, Kenneth R, Burdine, James N, Matarrita-Cascante, David, Wang and
Jia "Community health needs assessment: potential for population health improvement."
Population health management 19.3 (2016).
Wasserman, Michael and James Riopelle. Primary Care for Older Adults. Springer, 2018.