Takeaway
Spend time in the community near your work to learn about barriers that patients face, such as lack of public transport, food deserts, and pharmacy deserts. Once you know the details, you can create more realistic care plans.
Connecting with patients | September 1, 2026 | 2 min read
By Christopher Martin, PhD, RN, Auburn University College of Nursing
Mrs. Chen sat in the ED waiting room at 11 P.M., clutching her daughter’s arm. Her blood pressure was 180/110—dangerously high. The attending physician wrote prescriptions for three new medications and scheduled a cardiology follow-up in six weeks. Standard protocol.
But nobody asked her the right questions.
If they had, they would have learned that Mrs. Chen worked two jobs—one ending at 10 P.M. Her pharmacy didn’t open until 9 A.M., and she couldn’t get there before her morning shift. Her “uncontrolled hypertension” wasn’t about motivation; it was about a 45-minute bus ride and a rigid work schedule.
I learned this lesson not in my formal training in healthcare, but working in a community center as an undergraduate.
How volunteering in a community-center influenced my practice
As an undergraduate, I chose 40 hours of community service over a 20-page paper—the lazier option, or so I thought. What I found instead was an education no classroom could provide. That community became my teacher about barriers to accessing healthcare—the structural inequities woven into some patients’ everyday life. When I became a bedside nurse, I carried those lessons with me.
Asking different questions
When we understand the social context of our patients’ lives, we practice differently:
1. Instead of: “Why aren’t you taking your medication?”
Ask: “What’s making it hard to take your medication?”
2. Instead of: “You need to exercise more.”
Ask: “What would movement look like in your day-to-day life?”
3. Instead of: “Noncompliance.”
Recognize: Structural barriers, competing priorities, and other barriers to care patients face.
This shift transforms everything. Discharge planning becomes problem-solving. Patient education becomes conversation. And advocacy becomes tangible.
The ripple effect
When healthcare professionals step into communities as learners, something shifts. We stop seeing patients as isolated individuals with isolated problems. We see them as people embedded in systems, constrained by geography, economics, and time. We recognize that health doesn’t happen in our clinics—it happens in the time between visits, in neighborhoods, in kitchens, and in the choices patients make in day-to-day life. And we practice differently because of it.
How to integrate this into your practice
1. Ask social questions.
A few examples include: “Where do you live? How do you get there? What’s your biggest barrier to care?”
2. Connect with the community near your work.
Volunteer, listen, and learn the barriers and constraints your patients face.
3. Challenge your assumptions.
When a patient seems “noncompliant,” assume difficulty accessing care and find out what challenges they face.
This piece expresses the views solely of the author. It does not necessarily represent the views of any organization, including Johns Hopkins Medicine.