For the past three years, School of Nursing students have worked
SON students work to provide services and help a Gulf Coast clinic become operational again.
with students from the UNC School of Public Health in contuining efforts to provide relief to victims and survivors of Hurricane Katrina. The latest documentary discussing these trips and activities is now posted on the School of Nursing Web site: http://nursing.unc.edu.
School of Nursing student Lindsey Bach is currently working in Oaxaca, Mexico, at el Centro de Salud,
School of Nursing student Lindsey Bach is providing care at el Centro de Salud in Oaxaca, Mexico.
providing care to patients in the community, to fulfill a summer externship experience. To view all the pictures from Oaxaca, please visit the School’s Flickr accout here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/unc_ch_son/sets/72157621809184492/
Day 1 – Service Learning Project 2009 Community Health Survey
On Monday our group which was comprised of 19 students and faculty from the Schools of Nursing, Public Health, Social Work and the Division of Physical Therapy gathered at the United Church of Chapel Hill to embark on our 5 day Service Learning Trip. We all piled into 4 vehicles and drove to Greensboro to the Gateway Center where we had our “just-in- time” training for the 2009 Community Health Survey (CHS). The CHS is a face-to-face health needs survey sponsored by Guilford County Healthy Carolinians and the Guilford County Department of Public Health. The data being collected assesses health status, access to care, social support and the need for service.
After our assignments were completed for the day we drove to beautiful YMCA Camp Weaver. We ate dinner, watched the DVD, Unnatural Causes: Is Inequality Making us Sick?, and discussed and reflected on the day. We all turned in fairly early knowing that we would have a very full day of interviews on Tuesday.
Day 2- Service Learning Project 2009 Community Health Survey
After a simple but lovely breakfast at Camp Weaver we set out for our staging area at the Guilford County Cooperative Extension on Burlington Rd. Our group arrived there around 8:30 a.m. where we were met by the staff of the Guilford County Dept. of Public Health. After a brief update and some debriefing, our 10 teams set out in separate cars to continue the interviews we started on Day 1. We interviewed more residents and learned more about their plight, struggles, hopes and fears. At the end of the day we completed a total 86% of the 210 surveys–way to go!!!!!!!!!!
One memorable interview was a mother of 2 small children living on the edge; her husband made too much money to qualify for Medicaid but too little to afford private insurance. She spoke of her frustration of not being able to seek medical care for herself, lack of affordable childcare options and affordable fresh produce. These same concerns were voiced by many in this community.
We headed back to Camp Weaver for dinner and a grand camp fire. We ate smores, sang songs and played games under the clouds and stars at Camp Weaver.
Day 3- Service Learning Project 2009 Community Health Survey
We packed up, ate breakfast, checked out of Camp Weaver and drove to the Gateway Center to receive final instructions for our last 4 hours of interviews. In the end we were able to complete all 210 household surveys. As we reflected on the past 2 ½ days, we were able to identify common themes among the communities: crime, drugs, lack of affordable fresh produce, access to quality healthcare, and the need for more safe parks. By identifying these concerns the Guilford County Department of Public Health together with Healthy Carolinians hopes to develop, implement and tailor programs to address them.
Day 4 – Service Learning Trip/Alligator Community
Our group had a mouth-watering breakfast at the 4-H Center and then headed out to the Visitor Center in Columbia where we met our partners from the Conservation Fund, Buck and Justin. We followed them to one of the more than 800 Rosenwald Schools in NC.
This one was located in the Alligator Community of Tyrrell County. There is an amazing history behind the Rosenwald schools. In a nut shell, Chicago philanthropist Julius Rosenwald, CEO of Sears, Roebuck and Company financed the building of over 5000 school houses in black communities from the early 1910s into the early 1930s. Today some of these schools are being identified and restored, which was one of our assignments during this trip. Our group gathered into the small, one room Rosenwald school house in which a large blackboard spanned one of the walls, there were several church pews inside and several other dusty nick knacks being stored. Justin and Buck gave us a brief orientation of the school and noted that the school was used to educate the white children of the community–not the black children, which was Rosenwald’s vision. This was confirmed by several older members of the community who told us that the black children were schooled in one of the local churches. I was taken aback by this revelation and it forced me to think of the history and events of that time period.
After the orientation we were given our assignments for the day. Because of the weather forecast the decision was made to first work outside in the Palmetto-Peartree Preserve and then come back to the school house. We left the school house and made our way to the preserve. Our assignment was to clean up the area of trash and CRABPOTS!! These large wire boxes had become tangled up in the brush and forested area after being blown ashore from Albemarle Sound to the shore. At the end of the day we removed enough crab pots and trash to fill 2 large dumpsters. We have pictures!!!
During our cleanup we found 2 voter boxes with sample ballots from the late 1800s and early 1900s!! We also found several books and magazines from that time period. Within an hour the place was cleaned up and made ready for our community meeting and cookout. Our group greeted the residents of Alligator community as they strolled into the school house. We inquired about their experience of rural living, asked about any issues or concerns they had and suggestions for future service projects, while eating hamburgers and hotdogs. I spoke to one resident who was a fisherman by occupation, who recently returned to Alligator community after a few years up North. He said he enjoyed rural living and the outdoors. What I found interesting was that he was able to name everyone who was in the school house that night, a testament to what a close-knit community Alligator is.
Day 5 – Service Leaning Trip / Alligator Community
We started our last day of the trip with another wonderful breakfast at the 4-H Center and made our way to the Visitor Center in Columbia
We were able to do a little shopping before heading to the auditorium to watch “Unnatural Causes”. After the movie we each reflected on our trip. For me, as a graduate nursing student, the week’s events led me to be more aware of the social determinants of health, like employment and housing. The face-to-face surveys allowed me to get a first hand, up close glimpse of the lives of those who are underserved and how their health is being determined, in part, by the social factors around them.
After our reflection we had lunch at one of the local restaurants in Columbia and then headed off for a tour of Somerset Place. Somerset Place is a state historic site that offers a view of antebellum plantation life.
Our tour guide led us through a typical day of plantation life as we walked in the rain between various buildings on the plantation, including a hospital with intriguing and somewhat horrifying instruments and tools. The tour cumulated at the Great House of the planters, which was furnished with original pre-civil war items some of which were donated by the original family.
After the tour we got into our vans and drove back to Chapel Hill. It was an amazing trip of learning, discovery and full of new experiences. We visited places and people we would have never crossed paths with. All in all I can say with confidence that we all had a good time and it was a life changing experience in some way.
Colette Allen, BSN, CCRN
Graduate Nursing Student, FNP Program
Meg Zomorodi, BSN ’01, PhD ’09, went to Uganda last summer as part of a medical mission organized by Duke University Medical Center. She and her team worked in Mulago Hospital — the hospital where several scenes from The Last King of Scotland were filmed. She plans to return this summer with several SON students to continue the work she helped start.
This is what she had to say about her experience:
I’ve always wanted to participate in a medical mission trip so when Michael Haglund, M.D., a neurosurgeon at Duke University Medical Center approached me about going to Uganda for two weeks, I didn’t hesitate.
Without knowing any specifics, my husband and I agreed to be a part of this 28-person medical team, determined to make a difference in the lives of the Ugandan people. We had no idea the impact that Uganda would make on our lives and how determined we would both become to maintain a continued relationship with this beautiful country.
What started out as a mission trip to conduct medical services for the people of Uganda grew into a massive undertaking. In January 2007, Haglund traveled to Uganda to tour the operating facilities at Mulago Hospital. What he found there was a flashback to the 1960′s where physicians operated with ether and the operating room nurse was the true canary in the coal mine – when the nurse passed out from the ether fumes, surgeries stopped for the day.
There was one ventilator in the 1,500-bed hospital, and it was only used for new admissions. Therefore, if a patient came into the hospital and the ventilator was being used, the family of the patient using the ventilator had to decide to withdraw life support or manually ventilate the patient. After this experience, our plan shifted to include donating medical equipment. When all was said and done, nine tons of equipment were donated to Mulago Hospital. With help from UNC-Chapel Hill School of Nursing (SON) faculty and students, more than 100 textbooks were donated as well. This was especially important to me since education was my top priority.
When we arrived in Kampala, word had spread about the U.S. medical mission and more than 100 people had driven across the country to have access to this free service. We unloaded the equipment and spent 12 hours unpacking and organizing our supplies.
The next morning we began our first cases. When we realized we didn’t have a phone or any way to stay in touch with the operating room, I donned a mask and ran back and forth between the three operating rooms in order to maintain contact between them and the recovery room. During the four and a half days in the operating room, we successfully completed 30 neurosurgical cases. Just as importantly, the intensive care unit and recovery rooms were completely revamped, and the nurses gained a wealth of education.
When I first arrived in the recovery room, I met Agnes, the only recovery room nurse. She told me her role was to make sure that the patient was still breathing and, then, send him or her to the floor where the nurse-to-patient ratio was 1-to-50! After unpacking our equipment, I provided information on assessment and post-op recovery, and my audience grew everyday. By the end of the week, we had a full time recovery room staff of eight nurses who performed full head-to-toe assessments, monitored vital signs for two hours, and, then, determined when, and if, the patient was stable enough to be discharged out of the recovery room.
The chief nurse told me on our last day in Mulago that theses nurses had now been hired to the recovery room, and their plan was to transform the recovery room into an overflow intensive care unit. I also spoke with her about continuing my relationship with Uganda and made a promise to her that I would never forget the wonderful nurses at Mulago Hospital.
I am doing my best to complete this promise as a representative of the SON. This summer five junior BSN nursing students will travel to Mulago Hospital as part of their summer work experience. Three (Sarah Day Dickson, Jenna Woodruff, and Jamie Cash) are planning to stay for a full three months, and the other two (Alison Helmink and Kristen Poe) will travel back with me in July. This is hopefully just the beginning of a continuous relationship with this wonderful country. For those interested in reading or supporting this experience, please visit the official blog space at: http://dukeinuganda.blogspot.com/.
This year the School will send 30 students, mainly from the BSN and MSN programs, to Honduras to run and assist with health clinics, feeding programs and visiting orphanages and hospitals as ambassadors from UNC. The trip, from March 6-15, 2008, will focus on increasing the cultural understanding of migrant Latino health issues and applying this knowledge to the growing Hispanic population in North Carolina.
Student’s individual cost for this trip is $1,300. Although some medical professionals have volunteered their time and some medicines and supplies have been donated through the non-profit organization Compassion Med International, trip participants still need financial funding to purchase supplies here and in Honduras. The following donations would also be helpful:
Over-the-counter meds:
Tylenol 325mg (60 bottles x 100ct)
Tylenol 500mg (50 bottles x 100ct)
Cough Drops (~20bags of 30 or more ct)
Neosporin (20 tubes x 30gm)
Hydrocortisone 0.5% (25 tubes 15gm or 30gm)
Hydrocortisone 1.0% (25 tubes 15 gm or 30gm)
Lotrimin Cream 1.0%(antifungal cream) (25 tubes)
Vaginal Cream [anti-yeast] – 15-20 tubes
Poly-vi-sol (10-15 bottles)
Pepto-Bismol tablets ( 20 boxes )
Children’s Vitamins
Adult Vitamins
Prenatal vitamins
Ibuprofen 200mg
School supplies:
New or nearly new children’s book bags and light weight school supplies (paper will be purchased in Honduras)
A collection box will be placed outside the Division 2 door on the 4th floor of Carrington Hall. Another box will be in front of Jean Davison’s office door, 535. Please mail financial donations to Compassion Med International, 200 Sage Rd., Chapel Hill, N.C., 27514.
With the support of SON faculty and staff, 20 participants worked in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, during Spring Break 2007. The team saw more than 300 patients daily in the clinic, and they delivered food packets to feed 30 families for a week. They also provided clothing, vitamins and medicines to an orphanage, visited and gave medical supplies to a local hospital and provided vitamins and anti-parasitic medications to thousands of children.
Hello everyone! Next week (February 4-8, 2008), the SON will host its 3rd annual Global Health Fair in an effort to raise awareness and understanding of our role, as nurses, in an ever-growing global world. Various campus-wide and student organizations will be displaying information and holding presentations throughout the week on the ground floor of Carrington Hall and in the Fox Auditorium. These displays and presentations will provide us all with a better understanding of the diversity of contributions that nurses make to global health both here in the United States and abroad. In addition to these events, which include a SON faculty panel discussion, a panel of nursing students who have worked or volunteered abroad and guest speakers, we will also be showing several films. There will be week-long, informal showings of Rx for Survival, a compelling PBS documentary showcasing stories of global health champions and the communities they strive to protect. These showings will take place in Carrington on the ground floor, outside Fox Auditorium, and in the study loft above the Fox Auditorium. We hope to also show several other films for FREE nightly throughout the week from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. in Room 15 and in Fox. These films include Invisible Children, the story of child soldiering in the on-going civil war in northern Uganda; Babel, starring Brad Pitt; and Michael Moore’s controversial documentary, Sicko. We hope to also provide popcorn and soda for guests during these viewings! As globalization continues, the future of nursing will undoubtedly incorporate global health matters. Within our communities, the rates of immigration are only growing, leading to a very diverse patient population, locally and nationally. According to the World Health Organization, at least 50 percent of all health care around the globe is given by nurses. By virtue of the leadership role that nurses assume within the international health sector and the professional responsibility to provide effective, competent and compassionate care, we have an obligation to understand and be aware of the way that others live both abroad and within our own communities. Be on the look out for more information, including a schedule of events for next week’s Global Health Fair. Please come out and support our efforts to give Global Health a voice at the SON! Hope to see you there next week!
Korey Christian, BSN-24 month senior
Will Morrow, BSN-24 month senior
Co-directors, UNC SON Global Health Committee
CHAPEL HILL – Health affairs students at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill who volunteered to provide primary healthcare and public health services to individuals still affected by and recovering from Hurricane Katrina may be denied the opportunity to help.
Organizers for the trip to Biloxi and the Mississippi Gulf Coast, scheduled for March 9-15, 2008, said they still need $4,800 to meet their bare-bones budget of $12,300. Without the additional funds, the trip will be canceled. Funds pay for a chartered bus for transport to the Gulf Coast, rental cars while on site, gasoline and minimal incidental expenses. Participants pay for lodging and food.
“The need is still great, even though the general public is tired of hearing about Katrina disaster relief,” said Sonda Oppewal, a trip leader and associate dean for community partnerships and practice at the UNC-Chapel Hill School of Nursing. “Without the necessary funds for the trip, we won’t be able to contribute to community health assessments, provide badly-needed health promotion interventions or give students an educational and hands-on opportunity to make a difference in the lives of vulnerable populations in the aftermath of a natural disaster.”
This year, 17 students and four faculty members from the School of Nursing (SON) will join with 17 students and faculty members from the Schools of Social Work and Public Health and community partners to work on relief efforts.
Volunteers will bring primary healthcare to children and families who need physical and mental health therapy, conduct interventions and assessments in schools, complete door-to-door assessments in one of the poorest rural communities, test water quality for drinking, lead and participate in health promotion and education activities and provide direct support for rebuilding infrastructure.
SON students, community partners and faculty will repair homes, putting up roofs, painting sheetrock and doing carpentry and finish work. The Lutheran Disaster Response in Camp Biloxi will provide referrals from a list of more than 500 homes that still need repairs.
“The nursing students will have the opportunity to develop and hone important communication, assessment and health promotion skills on this trip, in addition to working as a healthcare professional on an interdisciplinary team,” said Oppewal, noting that providing direct clinical care is now more difficult because the expedited process for out-of-state certified nurse practitioners to provide emergency relief is no longer in effect.
In 2005, the SON made a three-year commitment for this service trip. Since then, SON volunteers have provided direct healthcare services to the most vulnerable Hurricane Katrina victims, helped community healthcare clinics reopen and conducted home visits with low-income, rural-area victims. SON faculty members Oppewal, Beth Lamanna, Julee Waldrop and Diane Yorke will participate in and supervise the trip.
To support the Mississippi Gulf Coast Service Trip, please make checks payable to the SON Foundation, Inc. and mail them to: Norma Hawthorne; University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Nursing; Campus Box 7460; Chapel Hill, N.C., 27599-7460. Checks must be received before Feb. 12, 2008.
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