Assignment task:
During the simulation I had some anxiety after I understood how to play the game and realized what was at steak like losing money from things that I had no control over and missing days of work and it counting as a strike when I had to miss work for meetings with the school for the child or court to deal with tickets. I like to win so that is where the anxiety was coming from but at the same time, I realized that it was just a simulation, so I was also relaxed about it and there was not really any competition for winning or losing against as it was just me and the computer. It was also stressful trying to manage the little bit of money that I was making but also provide the child in the simulation with the things that he needed to succeed and also not to feel left out of school activities.
During the simulation the hardest decisions I made was to not get the child a tutor when they needed one and just hope that someone on social media would be sufficient enough to help the child succeed in school. This was a very difficult decision for me because even though I do not personally have children and I do have lots of nieces and nephews and I try to always make sure that they have what they need to succeed in school and to do special activities that they want to do when their parents cannot afford to pay for it. The second most difficult thing for me to decide on was what to spend the money on at the grocery store. I like to just buy what I want to buy for food and this made it hard knowing that I only had so much money to be able to spend on groceries to make them last a few weeks. Also what made it hard was trying to decide what the child would be willing to eat also. Having to make sure that I had enough food for two people to eat was more difficult than trying to feed just one person.
Some expenses that the simulation left out were one if someone has a car then they also have to have car insurance to legally drive it on the roads. Another issue that they left out that can be very expensive is how is this child getting to and from school and who watches this child when the parent is at work after the kid gets out of school. Unless they are in an after school program that is free the parent would need to either hope that family or friends could pick the child up and watch them or pay for a babysitter until they get off work. Also other expenses would be an electrical bill as most places do not include this in their rent. Ways that I would try to deal with these situations would be to try to car pool with someone else that works the same shift and is coming from the same direction, that would help with the cost of gas and then the money that is saved on gas could go to a cheap liability only car insurance. As for the child and school, I would see if there was a bus or neighbor that could help drop the kid off and pick them up from school and see if they would not mind watching the child until the parent got off work. Or see if a place was for rent near a grandparent that would be willing to help out with the child when they were not in school until the parent could get off work. As for the electrical bill there are programs that help pay for electrical bills also there are programs within the electrical company to make all the months equal which spreads the more expensive months bills to the cheaper months bills to make them more affordable. This would be an option to at least be able to know and plan for the electrical bill easier.
As a future nurse I could use this experience to better understand what people in poverty go through and be more sympathetic towards them and realize that they are doing the best that they can do within their means of money. I could also try to find extra resources that they could use to help make the money that they do have stretch a little further. I could also volunteer at community clinics so that they would have enough staff to service these underprivileged families so that they would not have to take time off work to go to clinics during the week.
I chose the article that I found on spotlight to because it had to deal with what the country is doing to overcome the issue that we have on poverty. For instance, providing child tax credits for parents to help pay for their children's needs, and states like Colorado are making school lunches are free for all students so they do not have to worry about paying for food while at school. Other states like South Dakota are expanding how many people can receive Medicaid benefits. With everything that this country is doing to try to improve the poverty the percentage of people in poverty has dropped, however, we still have the highest poverty levels out of all the rich countries according to. The article regarding causes of poverty also addressed how a lot of these policies that were put into place have since expired and are now waiting on being voted on again (Staff et al., 2023).
Our government and our communities are trying to work together to limit the impact of poverty like providing early childhood education opportunities for low-income families and also providing free clinics in underprivileged neighborhoods. The government is also working on trying to get money to the underprivileged families in the way of child tax credits and also helping with providing health care insurance to those that qualify. Medical and nursing schools also help out with the underprivilege by volunteering at clinicals and other places that offer help to low-income families and providing free screening tests and other resources to families in need.
Responses to peer postings should be substantive. A substantive post adds to the discussion by bringing out new points or asking questions to clarify points made in the original post. In the response posting, compares own ideas with peers and builds on peers' ideas. Do NOT just say you agree or disagree or nice post-add more to these ideas and thoughts.