Deloris Doleman is president of Nurses, Inc., a newly-formed group of local nurses with a focus on meeting community needs.
Their first event, which Doleman said she hopes will become the group’s annual signature event, is a National Wear Red Day event that will be held at the Columbus Convention and Trade Center on Feb. 3. All attendees must wear red.
The free women’s heart health program will feature screenings, a presentation from Columbus cardiologist Dr. Alonzo Jones, a fashion show and a “Heart Rap” performed by Quincy Brown.
Doleman recently spoke with the Ledger-Enquirer about Nurses, Inc. and the heart health program.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Tell me about Nurses, Inc., and how the group came to be.
Well there was just a group of Registered Nurses and we were sitting around talking and felt the need for a group to just concentrate, not to have a whole lot of meetings or conventions to attend, just a local grassroots simple volunteer group. No national ties or anything like that. No dues to pay. Just volunteer, look at the community and see what the needs are in the community and then try to address those needs.
And also, another emphasis other than health education, was to try to improve the nursing shortage one nurse at a time by giving nursing scholarships to students in the area who’ve been accepted to an accredited school of nursing. So we’ve been looking at giving scholarships to nurses from Columbus State and Columbus Tech and other areas in the community that are accredited in order to decrease that nursing shortage.
Why did you choose the Heart Truth/National Wear Red Day as your signature event?
As the signature event we chose this because as women, more than 8 million women in the country have heart disease or actually die of heart disease. And that’s astounding. So we thought we needed to continue to try and get the message out. We looked at the Go Red for Women campaign and it looked like a good campaign that would get the attention of the community, the public.
And then we looked at things that might appeal to women and of course a fashion show appeals to women. Dillard’s was so kind to volunteer to furnish the red dresses for the fashion show and, you know, usually models don’t say anything. But this is a unique fashion show in that the models are going to speak. And what are the models going to speak about? They are going to speak about heart healthy tips to reiterate what Dr. Alonzo Jones will be saying in his presentation at the Go Red for Women/National Wear Red Day event. So we’re excited about how the community, how the public, is going to accept these talking models in their red dresses.
What is the most important piece of information you wish to impart on women about this event and about heart health?
Well, we want them to attend the event, come and get some screenings that will be offered. We will be offering BMI (Body Mass Index screening), and that’s letting us know exactly where we stand, how overweight we are. Then we are going to do the stroke assessment and we’ll be doing blood pressure screenings. And all of these are screening tools that aid women in knowing their heart health.
And then we want to encourage them to go to their health care provider on a regular basis, at least annually, to get these various tests done. Then any time there’s a change, you’ll know, if you’re going annually.
And then we want women to understand the symptoms of heart attack because they’re unlike the textbook picture: chest pain radiating down your left arm. In women those symptoms may be different or they may be silent. So we want women to understand heart health.
What do women need to remember in terms of taking care of their heart?
You want to look at physical activity, increasing physical activity. Don’t smoke. … We want to look at maintaining a normal blood pressure. … We want to look at if they’ve got diabetes, controlling their diabetes. You want to look at risk factors that you can change -- you can change your activity level, you can change your eating habits.
As we launch this, the members of Nurses, Inc., are also launching personal commitments to their own health and making lifestyle changes. My personal goal is to lose weight. So I’ve started on that. So that as we celebrate National Wear Red Day in 2013, I should have a story to tell.
Are there other ways throughout the year that Nurses, Inc., promotes heart health or any other health-related initiatives?
The plan is to look at some program once per quarter for community health awareness. We won’t just address issues of the heart, but other issues that we may find as we do our research. Nurses, Inc., stands for Nurses United for Research, Scholarship, Education and Service. …
What do you think is the most common misconception when it comes to women and heart disease?
“Oh, women don’t have heart attacks like men.” That’s a misconception. Or the description of the pain, “Oh I didn’t have pain down my left arm” or “I didn’t feel like something was standing on my chest.” But there may have been pain in the jaw, pain in the neck or there may have been just nausea or sweating. Sometimes it’s not the typical symptoms.
