Not Your Typical Law Firm

     Randall Danskin is not your typical law firm. They believe on providing strategic guidance and counsel based on their clients’ goals. For more than 100 years the attorneys of Randall Danskin have been known for their professionalism. And they are known for their volunteerism.
      Earlier this summer The Volunteer Lawyers Program (VLP) Advisory Committee and the Spokane County Bar Association Board of Trustees recently selected Randall | Danskin to receive the Exceptional Law Firm of the Year Award in recognition of the firm's support to the Spokane County Volunteer Lawyers Program during the past year.
     We at ONE NURSE AT A TIME would like to add our words of appreciation to this outstanding law firm that not only provided guidance through the process of obtaining our non profit 501(c)(3) status, but also, more recently, assisted us in drafting the legal releases necessary for our volunteer work.  We want to extend a huge THANK YOU to Douglas J. Siddoway, and all the others at Randall Danskin, for your generous gifts of your time and talent. 

ONE NURSE Awards First "Returning Nurse" Scholarship

   One Nurse At At TIme is thrilled to award another humanitarian nursing scholarship to Jennifer Tucker,RN, MSN, FNP-BC.  A dedicated nurse volunteer,Jenn will be making her fifth medical mission to San Raymundo, Guatemala, in October, with Refuge International.(RI).

Jenn was a One Nurse 2010 scholarship recipient when she previously served in San Raymondo with RI in February 2010. The following are Jennifer's remarks about her 2010 medical mission. We at One Nurse look forward to hearing all about this years mission when she returns.

In Jennifer's words:

Refuge International. It is not merely an organization with hundreds of volunteers.  It is not solely an organization that makes me feel safe in a foreign country.  For me, it is friendship. It is love.  It is serving those that need served the most.  It is the bringing together of people who are not always like-minded but like-souled.  I had the pleasure and joy of traveling to San Raymundo twice in 2010 with Refuge, February and October.

We saw sicker patients this past year, more grossly abnormal clinical findings.  More heartbreak than before.  More joy than before.  We had several patients that we simply had to say, there is nothing we can do for you, your condition will ultimately lead to your death, we are deeply sorry.  It is such a difficult conversation to have in the United States.  But, to have it with a patient and their family who have the wild hope that the gringos can fix anything.  This conversation can cause my heart to stop for a moment.  We hold hands with these patients. We offer comfort medications.  We help the family to understand how to help these people have a peaceful death.  We pray with them.  We cry with them.  We had patients who, by birth or by accident, had brain abnormalities.  Things from which they will never recover.  They will never be “normal”.  To be thanked for giving them the truth about their condition is humbling. It amazes me how the right provider ends up with the patient that needs them the most.  The trip in October saw the birth of a baby in the clinic.  Such hope and joy in a new baby’s cry!

Please do not think of me as a self-sacrificing, amazing person who goes for completely altruistic reasons.  It is not true.  I go because every year, I receive so very much.  Personally, it puts into perspective, my life, my goals, my desires.  It helps me to rely not on diagnostic testing, as there is very little available to me when in clinic.  But, rather, it helps me to develop my hands on skills and diagnostic abilities based on patient presentation.  I bring back the blessings of hundreds of people who we see in clinic.  I bring back the stories of love, hope and sorrow.  I bring back knowledge from every single member of the team I travel with...they all teach me so much.  The students I have worked with made me a better teacher.  The translators, our voices and our ears, infuse the spirit of their people into English that we can understand.  I come home with more friends. The camaraderie of the providers, the long hours, the tears that we’ve shared, bond us in a way that I’ve never been bonded to others before.  Do not think of me as a giving person.  Think of me as a person who has been enriched beyond anything she has hoped to be enriched, loved more than ever, taught in a way that she’s not been taught before and thankful for things she’s never been thankful for.

An Amazing Young Nurse

ONE NURSE AT A TIME is proud to announce our Thirteenth scholarship for 2011! Ginger Hart has only been a nurse for one year, but has already completed three medical missions since graduation and will return to Port au Prince, Haiti this Fall to work with Project Medishare for Haiti. 

Ginger always knew from the time she was a child that she wanted to help those who were less fortunate than herself.  In 2007 she, along with 20 other nursing students, boarded a plane set for Shanghai , China. They spent the summer learning about traditional Chinese medicine as well as providing immunizations and basic care for the orphans of Shanghai.

After the earthquake that ravaged Port-au-Prince, Haiti in February 2010 Ginger immediately began preparing for a way she could help. After graduating nursing school on a Saturday she boarded a plane bound for Haiti on Sunday.  She worked in the operating room in a makeshift tent hospital working with a non profit organization called Project Medishare for Haiti. It is supported and ran by the University of Miami hospital. She has made 3 different trips to Haiti since May 2010 and with her scholarship provided by One Nurse at A Time she will be able to make her 4^th trip this October.

"I am beyond excited to be going back to Haiti. It is my home away from home,” says Ginger.  She will work in the operating room with other volunteer doctors and nurses providing trauma and emergent surgeries around the clock. Project Medishare’s hospital, Bernard Mevs in the only ICU hospital on the entire island. It has 3 med/surg wards, 1 specific for spinal cord injuries. 1 pediatric ward with the only NICU and PICU, a 2 bed ER, a 1 bed triage, a 4 bed ICU with 2 ventilators, a 2 bed OR with a 4 bed PACU.

Ginger would like to extend her appreciation to ONAAT for the help they have provided her.  We at One Nurse At A Time say to Ginger....BRAVO!  We hold you in awe.  Each time you go out into the world you do , indeed, make it a better place.