Students Learn About Low Income Simulation in IPE Event

On Monday, May 29, students from Baptist Health Sciences University convened in the Campus Hub Assembly Hall and immediately gathered into groups of low-income families.

The Low-Income Disparities Simulation (LIDS) is an interactive, immersive experience that provides participants with a glimpse of the structural barriers and some of the personal and emotional consequences that people living in poverty confront. 

"The goal is to build empathy. To build a greater understanding of what the poor have to endure," states Cheryl Scott, IPE Simulation Coordinator.

      

         

Twenty stations were set up throughout the Assembly Hall during this simulation to help with the experience. There were services such as a bank, employer, supercenter, Community Action Agency, utility company, pawn broker, grocery store, payday, and title loan facility, to name a few.

Once students entered the Assembly Hall, they were immediately given packets explaining their financial situations and roles. The financial status of someone could either range from being homeless, in which that person had to begin living in a homeless shelter, to being in a single-parent household. Roles can extend from being a child, working adult, or elderly family member. During one month, divided into four 15-minute weekly increments, each student had to embody their role with key family goals in mind.

These goals consisted of keeping your home secure, feeding your family regularly, keeping the utilities on, make all loan payments, pay for miscellaneous expenses, and meet unexpected situations.

Nutrition alerts, eviction notices, childcare neglect which resulted in the police putting the child in foster care, and more were all a part of this process, keeping the simulation as realistic as possible.

The critical question for this simulation was: How does this apply to health care?

"As health care professionals, we need to understand the day-to-day realities of life faced by our low-income patients and families," answers Scott, "so that we can better assist them with their health care needs."

There was a debrief to reflect on and talk about the experience with the students after the simulation.