Jo's Nurse Week 2!

Here I am four days into my first nursing mission, and it is funny to think how far I have already come in the past few days. I was VERY nervous for this trip, which is strange because it is not my first time traveling, and I have even been to Central America before. I was more anxious to participate in this nursing mission experience than any of my military training (Basic Training, Air Assault School, training in El Salvador, Marathons, etc.), and before I arrived I could not place why I was feeling such strong feelings.

After some reflection, I realized that  I was worried that I would not be good enough, not know enough, and not be able to help the people here in the way that I really wished I could. As a new nurse, I still have insecurities about my knowledge, experience, and lack of clinical practice. HOWEVER, lucky for me I am joined in this experience with three other wonderful nurses.I am so grateful for all of the support that JP, Sandie, and Sandy have provided during this trip. Within the first day of meeting everyone it was hard to even remember why I felt so nervous.This experience has a strange sensation of moving by so fast, and yet, I feel like I have been here for a very long time.

Although our first few clinic days started off slow (Easter week is a National holiday), some patients came in and we were able to provide care. I really appreciated how much we all worked as a team and how each nurse supported the other. JP really harped on how important education is for the success and future of the community; we should see each interaction as an opportunity to teach, not only about the presenting problem, but about general health promotion. Education and prevention is the key to health in this community, at home, and all over the world. In addition to providing care for bacterial infections, fungal infections, etc, we provided education on proper hydration, body mechanics, nutrition, and much more. I was so touched by people´s gratitude for us being here and the services we provided. The people have made me feel so welcome, despite my broken Spanish and at times quiet demeanor. It is hard to explain how wonderful, passionate, and strong the people of this community are.

As I was walking down the hill from the clinic yesterday,I saw a small girl playing with a broom and sweeping a tree. Although this image may seem silly or insignificant; seeing this made me smile. I remember seeing a photo of me, at around the same age doing the exact same thing. I feel so grateful for the fortunate circumstances that I was raised in, it really just seems like luck for being born into the life I was brought up in, not having to worry about food, or if I could go to the doctors, or if I could afford to go to High School. This experience has significantly contributed to my passion for the career that I am choosing to enter. I am so excited to start working as an Army Nurse next month, and to finally gain the clinical experience, skill and knowledge that I so strongly crave. This experience has truly been both life changing and career changing. I feel a strong pull to work in underserved communities, whether they are at home or abroad. I know that I will return to Central America as a nurse; next time with experience under my belt, and a lot better Spanish. Until then, I will remember this truly amazing experience, and the wonderful people that I have met and learned from along the way

-Kristen

Mosby's 3rd Annual Superheroes Nursing Contest

Our very own, Sue Averill,RN, BSN, MBA and Co-founder and President of One Nurse At  A Time has been nominated for Mosby's Third annual SUPERHEROES of NURSING contest. Winners will be announced in October.

Sue Averill, RN, MBA, considers herself a “humanitarian snowbird.” While she works half the year in the emergency department of a large metropolitan hospital, she spends the other 6 months volunteering abroad. Her travels read like an atlas.

When she returned from each trip, friends, acquaintances, and even perfect strangers would ask, “How can I do what you're doing?" Sue always found time to chat and guide them along their path. Then, she decided to answer these questions not only for friends and colleagues, but for all nurses! She co-founded a non-profit organization, ONE NURSE AT A TIME, (One Nurse) in 2007 and continues us to serve as President for the organization. Her goal is to make it easier for nurses to use their skills around the world

 Over years of trying to expand her own volunteer experiences, Sue had become acutely aware that there was no central database/website to inform nurses about volunteer opportunities. The information available on the Internet was available only in bits and pieces. It became a priority to create a central database as part of the One Nurse website; this database is updated annually to assure it remains current and correct.

Although the majority of Americans have some understanding of what nurses do in the United States—working in clinics, hospitals, nursing homes, and the community—most of them have no idea what nurses do when they volunteer abroad. International volunteering involves a wide breadth of work: teaching, diagnosing and treating, and functioning as hospital administrators and logisticians. They, like medical MacGyver’s, must wear many hats and stretch far beyond their scope of practice at home. Sue wants the public to recognize the great value that even one single nurse brings to a mission, to a people in need, so networking is a huge part of the One Nurse organization. Representatives speak at public forums, maintain an active presence on Internet social networks, write articles, and publish articles and stories. 

Doing volunteer work, by definition, doesn't pay. Many, if not most, international organizations ask nurses to pay their own costs. Because Sue wanted to overcome that barrier so that more nurses could share their skills and expertise in the world, they created a One Nurse scholarship program that offers $1000 to qualified applicants.  

  When discussing why she has put so much effort into building a nonprofit organization for nurses Sue says,”The key for me came during a surgical trip to Pakistan – by comparison to girls and women there, I have lived a charmed life. I was born in a time and place that fosters independence, education and freedom for women. I believe it to be my responsibility to give of myself for the many gifts that I have received through no merit of my own. My goal is to make it easier for nurses to use their skills to help people around the world, to lower the entry barriers, to increase public awareness of the role and contribution nurses make in the humanitarian world. I truly believe we CAN change the world. “

Now if Sue Averill isn't a Nursing Superhero, I don’t know who is!

Kayla Swanson in Guatemala

As I reflect on my mission trip with HELPS International to HueHuetenango, Guatemala.  I go over in my head the lives we impacted in the short time we were there.  Not only the people in the community but the volunteers are changed forever.

We arrived with a medical team and a stove team.  The medical team which I was part of consisted of 2 general surgeons, 2 plastic surgeons, 1 ENT surgeon, and 1 OB/GYN surgeon.  We opened 4 operating rooms and were able to do 136 surgeries in the 5 days we were operational.  We also had a general clinic which consisted of 2 pediatricians, 1 nurse practioner,  and 2 family practice physicians.  This clinic saw a little over 650 patients in 5 days.  There was also a dental team with 2 dentists that saw a little over 200 patients.

This trip also had a stove team which went into homes and installed cooking stoves which are vented to the outside and use wood more efficiently then the open fires the people have been using for decades.  The hope here is to reduce the number of burns that are suffered from cooking over a open fire and also ease some respiratory conditions they have from the soot that accumulates in their small homes.

I realize that my contribution is minimal but the rewards the people of Guatemala have given me will last for a lifetime.  I feel that the trip has helped me to realize that you don't need material things to be happy or successful in your life.  I was struck by how happy and joyfull these people were in their lives without all the trappings of gadgets and other things that complicate our everyday lives.  My hope is that by setting an example and volunteering these people will see that they are important and they will in turn find some way to give back to others in their community.

Thank you, One Nurse at A Time for this valuable opportunity to give back.  

Kayla Swanson RN

Pediatric Surgery in Ecuador

by: Deborah Skovron

Within the clearly apparent physical outcomes of a pediatric reconstructive surgical mission lies an outcome that may not present itself quite as immediately to the volunteer nurse.  While this less physical outcome does not reveal itself in as dramatic a way that surgical intervention does, it is as significant, as permanent, and as enduring as any physical reconstructive outcome.  I was fortunate to realize this outcome while on a surgical mission to Ecuador last week.  I hope that by sharing this story, other volunteer nurses will realize the impact their contribution has in the lives of their patients well after they part ways.   
This mission was not my first surgical mission to this tiny South American country; I've been fortunate to return often as a volunteer PACU nurse in various Ecuadorian hospitals.
In 2012 I volunteered in a small public hospital's PACU in Salinas, Ecuador.  I returned this February to the same city but to a different hospital.  
On "triage" day I was responsible for patient intake information, weights, heights, etc. for prospective patients.
The day was moving along at a quick pace; families with kids were filling the hallways and spilling over to the outside.  
I had triaged around 90 kids, had had lunch, and was digging in for more patients when the exam-room door opened, a family entered and in an instant there was a young boy wrapping his arms around my waist with all of his might. A huge, happy surprise for each of us!!!!!  I was elated to see this young boy, this smiling face; to see him well, to see he had remembered me. The hug endured. Happy greetings were all around; young boy, parents, and nurse!
(I had recovered this young boy last year following the repair of a congenital anomaly. He had a great deal of discomfort, had difficulty ambulating, his parents were distraught, he had numerous surgical drains, incisions, and dressings. I spent hours with him, managing his pain, helping him to cough and deep breath, encouraging him to ambulate, reassuring his parents that all would be well. And indeed, all did go well; he was soon discharged.)  He had returned now, unexpectedly, for the second of four surgical interventions.

With that show of affection I realized, in an instant, that I had played a very significant role in this young boy's life last year; more than I had imagined. I had been placed in his mind as a GOOD memory, a thing with which he had a connection.  Along with a positive surgical outcome there had been an incredible consequential outcome; the creation of vital human bond between a young boy and an older woman, an Ecuadorian and an American, a patient and a nurse, a disadvantaged citizen and a citizen of means (relative term.). This was such a stark, impressive realization; quite significant for me. Now, at home, I feel even more a part of this global community; what a gain!! And not a "pat on the back" kind of a gain but a quiet, internal, satisfied gain.  

He did have his second reconstructive surgery last week; I was able to care for him again post operatively. He recovered quickly, he's speaking some English, he's a whiz at jig-saw puzzles, and he's a fan of chocolate Ensure.

I was once again able to practice the art of nursing; human to human caring.  I was not restricted, nor was my care defined by the rush, scripted, often routine approach to patient care in a large institutional care center that I often find associated with my job in the states.

While nursing theory, medical science, and evidence-based practice has advanced the profession of nursing, to be one with another in a time of need is the hallmark of nursing......and there in lies the charm and the appeal of humanitarian nursing.