Walking in Their Shoes: Gardner-Webb Health Sciences Students Experience the Realities of Poverty

Eye-Opening Simulation Reveals Real-World Struggles Some Patients Face

BOILING SPRINGS, N.C.—For nearly two hours on Sept. 26, Faith, Stewart and Hope Halls in Tucker Student Center at Gardner-Webb University became a small city with homes, businesses and services, such as a bank, grocery, pawn shop, jail, school, day care, and others. The residents were 95 students in the College of Health Sciences Physician Assistant (PA) and Nurse Practitioner (NP) programs. They took on the roles of single parents, grandparents, teenagers, children, toddlers, and infants in a poverty simulation exercise, where they experienced challenges that were similar to those faced by low-income families on a regular basis.

A group of 26 volunteers from GWU faculty, staff, and the community assisted by playing the parts of the service directors and business owners in the make-believe town. Interim GWU President Nate Evans and Vice President and University Chaplain for Christian Life and Service Dr. Josh Parrott opened the event with a welcome and prayer. 

While playing out mock scenarios, the students experienced real emotions—stress, sadness, hope, worry, nervousness, helplessness, frustration and more. In the debriefing afterward, the students shared how their attitudes changed while trying to pay the bills, feed their family, buy medicine, and respond to other circumstances that happened in the course of the afternoon.

The event is coordinated by Marie Davis, GWU interprofessional simulation coordinator. “It is so important for our PA and NP students to experience, even if it is through simulation, the challenges and obstacles of what navigating life is like for a person living in poverty,” Davis explained. “They can witness the struggles of choosing to eat, keep their power on, or go to the doctor. Even in this simulation, where these students know the importance of healthcare, the Community Healthcare Resource is seldom visited. This allows students to gain an understanding that more often than not, patients are just trying to survive, and to meet them where they are instead of quickly labeling them as ‘noncompliant.’”

Some of the participants, like PA student Jordan Kaplan, played the part of a younger child who couldn’t do anything to help the family. “It has been very tough,” Kaplan reflected. “I don’t have much responsibility. I just have to go to day care, but I’m seeing my older brother and my older sisters struggle to feed us and struggle to find resources because we don’t have anybody who has a job right now. We have a father, but he is in jail.”

Kaplan said participating in the simulation exercise put her in the shoes of people in the community. “This is a really great experience just to better understand our patients … to see how we can best serve them,” she noted.

Macie Dula, a student in the Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) program, played the part of Kaplan’s older sister. She mentioned that it was nice to see a church in the simulation town offering help to families. As a nurse who works in a hospital, Dula said the poverty simulation was helpful to understand where the patients she encounters are coming from. “We can help set up resources for people, but we don’t necessarily get to see how much they struggle getting access to those resources,” she observed.

A few spots over, Lauren Davis, another DNP student, was evicted from her home. She solved her homeless situation by moving in with her pretend neighbors, and becoming a baby sitter for that family’s children. Davis explained that in her family’s scenario, it was either feed the children or lose the house. A nurse educator, Davis said the poverty simulation will help her to better describe to her students the situations faced by people living in poverty.

In the role play given to PA student Samuel Merr, he was a 7-year-old living with his grandparents. “I think the simulation makes us a little bit more sensitive to the kind of the struggles that people are going through,” he shared. “We started off this activity with a plan. And you know, we thought it would be a little bit easier, but those day-to-day things that are unexpected really shook everything up, and if this were a real situation right now, we would be in serious trouble, you know, as far as getting access to medication for both my character and then the caretaker, the grandfather. It shows me as a provider, the struggles that really happen. We have to be aware of these things to help patients with costs and maybe alternative methods to get what they need.”

Merr said in the classroom, he and his classmates learn how to diagnose a physical problem and improve a patient’s health with lifestyle changes, medications or treatments. The poverty simulation is a reminder of the many social challenges and external pressures that can happen in a patient’s life. “This is just an eye-opening experience,” he stated.

Davis summed up the successful learning exercise, “This is my favorite simulation that I get to implement throughout the year. Every year, we enhance aspects to make it better for the students, and I feel this year was our best one yet! This group of students embodied their characters and were very honest in sharing their thoughts and experiences during our debriefing session. I’m so proud of our team and the impact we can make on future healthcare providers and their patients.”

Gardner-Webb University is North Carolina’s recognized leader in private, Christian higher education. A Carnegie-Classified Doctoral/Professional University, GWU is home to nine colleges and schools, more than 80 undergraduate and graduate majors, and a world-class faculty. Located on a beautiful 225-acre campus in Boiling Springs, N.C., Gardner-Webb prepares graduates to impact their chosen professions, equips them with the skills to advance the frontiers of knowledge, and inspires them to make a positive and lasting difference in the lives of others. Learn more at gardner-webb.edu.