Relevance of the Issue: A academic practice partnership between the University of Maryland School of Nursing and a community center in west Baltimore includes running a nurses’ clinic at a local community center and engaging in street outreach to nearby homeless encampments. Quantifying our work to demonstrate the value of incorporating nursing services into a community center is challenging, and simply counting the number of encounters with community members is limited in usefulness.

Approach: I examined data collected via electronic record from September 2021 through November 2022. I used the Public Health Intervention Wheel to aid in framing and quantifying the work in the nurses’ clinic and during outreach.

Outcome: We documented care on 793 encounters with 413 unique individuals. We met eight of 16 interventions described in the Intervention Wheel, five of which are easily quantifiable, including outreach, screening, case management, referral and follow up, and counselling. Many clients receive more than 1 intervention in a single encounter. Of 455 referrals, only 49 clients had documented follow-up. Interventions that are not performed strictly during clinic or outreach include consultation, collaboration, and advocacy.

Implications: Community centers in low-income areas could be better leveraged to improve health equity by increasing uptake of health services and providing a dependable source of nursing support. Demonstrating our effectiveness begins with quantifying our interventions. Operationalizing interventions and constructing meaningful benchmarks remains challenging. Consistently performing screenings, optimizing usage of electronic records, and locating clients for follow-up are areas for improvement.