How Can Free Possibly Be Worth Anything?

On a recent Sunday, I talked with one of my church’s parish nurses after getting a free blood pressure check. It is a fantastic countywide program that has grown like dandelions in my front yard.
Parish nurses are unsung heroes. Volunteers, they are members of a zero-dollar healthcare program that, started at Our Saviour Lutheran Church in Stone Harbor in 2000 by Bonnie Kratzer, a registered nurse with BSN. Free blood pressure checks are done there Wednesdays from 1-3 p.m., 93rd and Third Avenue.
This program ought to be in every Cape May County church, synagogue and or religious body. Presently it is in 50 churches, with room to grow. It became part of the Community Health Education program that Kratzer oversees at Cape Regional Medical Center along with Lifestyle Management.
It’s free. How can anything free possibly be any good? What good is free? Free? There must be something wrong with it; nobody does anything free nowadays. That may be what you think, but that is wrong.
I hate to tell you, but something like the Parish Nurse program could become a highly valued part of anyone’s regular healthcare. There are likely many in each religious body who are nurses, registered or licensed practical, who are trained at Atlantic Cape Community College in a five-week, one-night w eek course by Kratzer to take blood pressures, and keep track of medications and symptoms.
Parish nurses are not, nor do they profess to be, medical experts. That remains the domain of physicians. Parish nurses are the equivalent of what in China are called “barefoot doctors.” They are also trained to listen.
I recall doing the story of the program‘s origin, and talking to Kratzer. Among things that Our Saviour Lutheran enlisted as part of the program was unneeded medical hardware. That includes canes, walkers, wheelchairs and the like. They were loaned to anyone who needed them, free, for as long as needed. Kratzer said there is an overflow, and a shed contains them, so if anyone is in need, contact her at (609) 463-4043.
Many patients purchase items and use them for a brief time, then they are put away. Still those items are serviceable for years, because no one knows who needs them. That is where the parish nurse program enters. It is a connection place, a gathering point, for those in need.
It is free. How can it be any good? Well, it is beneficial, and will continue as long as the idea thrives in a congregation.
Often, a brief chat with a parish nurse can soothe a person’s fears about a condition, medication or other problem they may not want to discuss with their doctor or family member. Consultations are confidential.
Come on, there has to be a catch. If it’s free, who’s making a buck from it? No one because money is not the motivating factor.
That concept is difficult for many to grasp. We are so used to simply throwing money at problems, medical, educational, environmental, you name it, we cannot comprehend how a free program would benefit anyone or anything. It does.
Once we loose the bonds of such erroneous thought, we realize there is no need to feel the compulsion to buy children new gadgets, like costly computers, when free books, available from the local library, would be every bit as effective, if nor more so than electronic wizardry, that costs $1,000 or more.
My parish nurse imparted another lingering thought that I will share.
She went to Haiti on a brief medical aid mission, and uncovered a revelation in that devastated nation.
Working at an interdenominational mission that serves as a school, church and medical clinic, she encountered Haitian children who touched her heart with their dire basic needs and their hunger for education.
To hear her talk about those pupils’ wish to learn was a flash back to an America where education was esteemed, and where students’ view toward learning was a hunger not a bother.
Many students, she said, especially the older ones, must look after their younger siblings. Most children’s homes have no running water. Therefore, older children awake about an hour before their brothers and sisters, and travel to fetch water, and bring it back home in heavy containers.
Once washed and ready for school, the children walk perhaps an hour or two to school.
Once at school, they are like sponges, she said. They soak up studies, and are eager to learn with the few educational tools available to them. There are few discipline problems, she noted, “Probably since the children are tired out from their long walk to school.” School buses out in the country are unknown.
Best of all, she noted, the mission, in existence for about 20 years, is beginning to see the fruits of its labors. A young nurse went away to college and returned to help her people. A teacher returned, and so the cycle will continue.
Yes, there is a crying need at the mission, she said, and she felt guided to help raise money. How much to complete the school, and add a second floor? Of course, it will be used seven days a week, including for religious services on Sundays, when, get this, due to the overwhelming number of those who want to attend services, they are assigned a Sunday to attend.
The price tag for that mission? Sit down, $100,000.
Yes, that concrete block structure will sustain hurricanes and, hopefully, earthquakes and serve hundreds of Haitian men, women and children.
To us, $100,000 is roughly the cost of an engineering study for a school building. Imagine building a structure for $100,000 that will serve hundreds and serve for many years.
Impossible? Nothing is impossible if there is a real desire linked to it. Like the parish nurse program which aids many for nothing.
If only we could fully grasp the notion that throwing money at medicine or education is not the answer, but is part of the problem. If the hunger is there to learn, money is secondary. Americans simply cannot get that through their gray matter, that money is not the answer to every human need. What is free is often the thing needed the most.