MGH Institute of Health Professions Students Make Impact during 2nd Annual Community Day

As her mother, Jean Mabstedt, looked on, three-year-old Rachel happily played with MGH Institute of Health Professions students in the Charlestown Public Library’s children’s room.

“Rachel can be a bit shy when she doesn’t know someone, but she perked right up with the students,” said Mabstedt, a Medford resident who returns to her native Charlestown regularly. “I’m glad we came.”

More than 320 faculty, staff, and graduate students from the Charlestown Navy Yard health professions graduate school visited almost 30 nonprofits and other organizations during its 2nd Community Day on September 20. It was almost triple the number of locations from last year.

Each team of 10 was composed of students in nursing, physical therapy, and speech-language pathology who are beginning a semester-long class called Interprofessional Model for Patient and Client-centered Teams, or IMPACT, where they will learn to work with each other and lay the groundwork to provide interprofessional patient care during and after their MGH Institute education.

“It’s extremely valuable to know what students in other disciplines do,” said first-year Doctor of Physical Therapy student Sasha Kossak, who was paired up with Master of Science in Speech-Language Pathology student Daniel Kahn to play with youngsters at the library.

A Variety of Tasks

Students performed a variety of tasks throughout Charlestown, as well as in Beacon Hill, the South End, the North End, and South Boston. These included providing seniors with health tips, cleaning up city parks and housing development yards, doing arts and crafts, running an adaptive soccer clinic for kids with disabilities, and leading a yoga class for high schoolers.

At Zelma Lacey House, speech-language pathology student Dolph Paulsen and resident Warren Spaulding were chatting in the assisted living facility’s den. “I like having all these young people come in and see us,” said Spaulding.

“It’s definitely a chance to get ready to work with a diverse population,” noted Paulsen. “You meet people you wouldn’t normally meet in day-to-day activities.”

Added Associate Provost for Academic Affairs Peter S. Cahn, PhD, “We feel that it is important for future health professionals to understand the communities where their patients come from."

The list of Charlestown locations visited were: Access Sports, Amy Lowell House, Boston National Historic Park – Navy Yard, Captain's Quarters, Charlestown High School, Charlestown Nursery School, Charlestown Public Library, Children's Quarters, Courageous Sailing, Doherty Park, Edwards Middle School, Ferrin Street Senior Housing, Golden Age Center, Harvard Mall Park, Kennedy Center, Mishawum Housing Development, Newtowne Housing Development, Smart from the Start, Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital, St. Mary-St. Catherine of Siena Parish, and Zelma Lacey House.

Other sites in Boston were: Boston Children’s School, Boston Healthcare for the Homeless, Center Club, Kennedy Academy for Health Careers, North End Nursing Home, Room to Grow @ 142 Berkeley Street, and the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway.

The MGH Institute, now in its 36th year, has more than 1,400 students and 4,400 graduates