Illinois: Nurses Hit the Streets by Night

The University of Illinois College of Nursing recently hosted a screening of "Bevel Up: Drugs, Users and Outreach Nursing," a documentary film about how nurses deliver health care to people on the streets of Vancouver. About 50 nurses attended the screening in Chicago, including some who provide care on its streets.

In the film, nurses approach people on the street in a friendly, nonjudgmental way. One female nurse asks an injecting drug user if he wants to test for hepatitis and HIV, and informally asks whether he rotates his veins and about what kinds of drugs he uses. She later shows a heroin addict how to hold a needle with the bevel up so that the incision in the vein is smaller and does less damage.

Attendees said they were impressed with Vancouver's program.

"It makes sense to treat the whole person as they do, but I'm amazed at the resources available to them," said Carolyn Smith, a nurse at Jesse Brown Veterans Administration Medical Center. "I just don't know of any place in Chicago that's using nurses the way they do." She noted that the public funding the Vancouver program receives enables it to hire 12 nurses. Privately funded Chicago efforts, in contrast, must rely on lay workers and have just two to three nurses on staff, she said.

In Chicago, the Night Ministry provides mobile blood testing, hepatitis A and B vaccinations, flu shots and condoms to the homeless, sex workers, and drug users. The nonprofit Gift House does street outreach in North Lawndale, Austin, and Little Village, providing regular mobile needle exchange, STD testing, and drug counseling services. And the Chicago Recovery Alliance provides weekly mobile needle-exchange program, hepatitis and STD testing, among other services. "We'd like to use nurses, but it's a matter of cost," said CRA Director Dan Bigg.

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