A haemoglobin test is meant to measure the amount of haemoglobin found in our blood. Haemoglobin is a particular kind of protein found in our red blood cells that carries oxygen to our body’s organs and tissues and transports carbon dioxide from the organs and tissues back to the lungs to exhaled when breathing out. If a person does a haemoglobin test and the results show that they have low haemoglobin, it means there is lack of low red blood cells, which leads to anaemia. It is good to know that anaemia can also have other causes such as vitamin deficiencies, bleeding, and chronic diseases. A haemoglobin test may also show higher than normal which can also be as a result of blood disorder polycythaemia, living at a high altitude, smoking, and also dehydration.
The main objective of this project is to raise awareness about low or high haemoglobin and to help the participants have a better understanding of it. It aims at counselling and educating women of certain ages to know why it is good to always check their haemoglobin. Some elderly women of foreign backgrounds that live in Finland have little or no idea of what haemoglobin is and why it is important to check and ways in which they can help keep their haemoglobin stable.
Objectives of own learning during the project:
- To educate the women about the different kinds of haemoglobin deficiencies
- To work together with organizations in future projects
- To connect learned theory with practice
- To develop and strengthen peer and team building towards future projects
- To work as nurses with a multicultural group of people as well as to boost Finnish language skills during the project
- To establish trust between us and the community members and cultivate openness with information
Implementation on plan
After the organization was provided to us, we started working on our plan. As we have three members in our group, the tasks were divided between us. We came up with the topic that we were going to implement. We sent an email to Monaliiku ry, told them about our plan, and fixed the date for the implementation. They happily accepted and liked our project plan. We also made a PowerPoint presentation, flyers, and a feedback form for the implementation.
For the project to be success, we must have project planning that includes estimating resources, timelines, schedule as well as budget. According to the plan, the resources estimated were human resources, hemoglobin meter, the organization’s office, email, Zoom, the internet to search for information, reducing as far as possible the financial expense for the project. For this project, Moniheli ry helped us with the budget. For the implementation date, we estimated around 150 euros, but the expenses were around 100 euros, which includes lunch, transport, some fruits, juices, and healthy snacks. We were provided with the hemoglobin meter and other equipment from our teacher Emma.
The date for the implementation was on 31st March 2022 at 12:30 to 14:30. This date was suitable for us as we had enough time to plan and execute the event. The event was held at Monaliiku ry’s office at Mäkelänkatu 54 A, 3rd floor. Our program was for 2 hours, which included a PowerPoint presentation in the beginning, then hemoglobin tests were performed, we counselled the participants according to the result they got, and finally collected feedback.
There were 15-20 participants at the event. Almost everyone had a normal range of hemoglobin i.e., 117 - 155 g/l. We could see happiness and smiles on their faces. Overall, it was a successful program and we got good feedback from all the participants as well as the organization.ä.
Evidence-based knowledge about chronic diseases among immigrants in Finland
Even though immigrants suffer from the same diseases as Finns, the severity of illness differs depending on ethnicity, age, and gender. Significant health problems and risk factors are especially prevalent in populations with a large number of immigrants. Chronic diseases counselling services at primary health care facilities require cultural adaptation to reach immigrant clients. Immigrants’ diverse backgrounds, cultures, and educational levels put them at risk of inequality related to service usage and poor health outcomes. Furthermore, primary healthcare providers who work with immigrants must be culturally aware and competent to deliver client-centered services.
Building trust between immigrants and health care providers can be challenging but not impossible. Building trust requires understanding the diversity of communities and engaging with communities, which means involving communities in decision making and how services are developed and delivered. It can be done by improving access to education, employment, and other social factors.
Immigrants face many challenges regarded to health services, as they don’t always trust the health services and they struggle with language barriers and health system literacy. As a result, they are hesitant to use services and are unaware of chronic diseases and their prevention. For the prevention of chronic diseases, firstly health care workers need to recognize that immigrants will be distinct in terms of social, cultural, and religious norms, and act accordingly. Awareness about chronic illness should be promoted at the population level. Immigrants should be educated about health as it provides the ability to access, understand, communicate, and apply health information to prevent personal lifestyle risks.
The project work was a huge success. At first, we were a little sceptical about it as we had not had this kind of outreach before. However, on the day of the implementation, it became very interesting. We were nervous at first before we started, but after we started, everything went smoothly. This outreach turned out to be very important as we could see that some of the women that we met had no clue about what hemoglobin is and it was good to know that all the information we passed on there actually helped them.
This project has really met with every expectation or objective we had about it. It has really built up our skills of working as a team. It has also made us work with a diverse and multicultural team. This project also somehow improved our language skills. We have also been able to really deepen our knowledge about our topic, which was hemoglobin.
Authors are students from Laurea University of Applied Sciences
