Karen E. Scheu, DNP, FNP-BC, assistant professor, has been volunteering at the Esperanza Center, a comprehensive resource center whose mission is to welcome immigrants by offering hope, compassionate services, and the power to improve their lives, since 2008.
When she joined the UMSON faculty in 2012, she continued seeing patients and was able to precept family nurse practitioner (FNP) students who speak Spanish. The Esperanza Center has welcomed UOMSON's FNP students which has been a great partnership and a unique way for students to get clinical hours and work with the Latinx community of Baltimore.
"For me, what drives this work always has been interacting with patients," Scheu explained to the Catholic Charities of Maryland, in their annual report. "But now I'm also excited to show my students there is work in health care outside the usual outpatient clinic or hospital, where the rewards include learning about another culture, learning so much more than just the diagnosis of the day."
The Esperanza Center is a community center that provides multiple services to the Latinx community in East Baltimore and the health center is a part of those services. It is a Catholic Charities organization and it is also the first Volunteer in Medicine Clinic (VIM) in the state of Maryland. During her DNP studies at UMSON from, 2010 - 12 Scheu was able to help the clinic director at the time apply for the VIM program.