It’s the first week of the semester and we’ve begun to truly prepare for our upcoming trip to Haiti in earnest. We had our first full day of trip planning as a group today, going over everything from mosquito netting to remembering to bring small gifts for our translators and hosts in Haiti. As we get to know each other and our project better, our energy has been building. We’re really going to Haiti in February. Making lists of practical things to do and get–duct tape and rope, toothbrushes and hemocue microcuvettes–has made the whole thing less abstract to [...]
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I will not tell a lie. Nursing school is one of the hardest things I have ever done. When I speak to other nursing students, I realized in the first two semesters a lot of us were going through similar life experiences all while studying for pathophysiology and pharmacology (the two hardest classes you will take in nursing school). We were all dealing with family issues, relationship issues, financial issues, etc. As inconvenient as it may be, life still goes on while you try to place things on hold in order to focus on studying and passing exams. So, [...] It snowed today. Finally. The moment I’ve been waiting for, and…. I walked in this snow for over an hour, and survived. I may be being a tad dramatic, but this actually is a personal accomplishment. And I had a wonderful class today (yes, Saturday) on Johns Hopkins’ ADAP (Adolescent Depression and Awareness Program). But first, let’s start with the beautiful white blanket that covered the city and school: The JHU SON Courtyard My brave friend Christina venturing off outside to take pictures. I stayed inside and took pics from the warmth and dryness of the school. She got some [...] In the past, I have raised money for various foundations and causes. The fundraising I’m doing for my Public Health Clinical in Haiti, though, is different. I’m not raising money that someone else will be using or distributing. I’m raising money to buy supplies and medicines that we will be administering and distributing ourselves. Dr. Beth Sloand, a graduate student, myself and seven classmates are all travelling to Jeremie, Haiti from February 17th-February 25th for our public health nursing clinical.While we’re there, our work will include: Health education on hand-washing & infection control, anemia & nutrition, substance abuse & violence Growth, blood pressure, [...] Now the Accel 2012 class is in the third semester. I can’t believe we’re already here, the time flew by. I really think it’s the amount of work we’re given that makes the program go by quickly. Right now we’re a little bit in a lull, post-vacation, pre-craziness. We only had two classes last week, Adult health II and either OB/peds. Next week we’ll be adding on IT which judging by the long syllabus and projects, may be a little more intense than I previously thought. It’s nice and quiet for this weekend, only one assignment (besides readings), and [...] I am fortunate to have had the opportunity to shadow an amazingly generous and kind alumnus all day last week at Stanford University’s Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital in Palo Alto, California. (Again, I am going to be extra-sensitive to HIPAA and try my best to not violate it. If anyone feels I have, draw this to my attention, please). (I would like to upload the pictures that I took, but for some reason all the files are damaged so I’m just going to upload some that I’ve found online to spice the post up) LPCH Being a Trad student and having [...] The U.S. State Department’s webpage on Haiti is a wealth of information, but it paints (as one would perhaps expect) a pretty grim picture. Living conditions in Haiti have been and continue to be wretched. The January 12, 2010 earthquake significantly damaged key infrastructure, and despite the passage of time, that infrastructure remains in very poor condition and is still unable to support normal activity, much less crisis situations. Last year’s cholera outbreak – exacerbated by inadequate public sanitation – killed thousands of Haitians. This further strained the capacity of medical facilities and personnel and undermined their ability to attend to emergencies. [...] Yesterday, as my sister and I were driving from Crozet, Virginia (where she works as a caregiver and volunteer at a lifesharing community for adults with intellectual disabilities) to New Brunswick, New Jersey (where our parents live), I made out the Exit for Johns Hopkins University through the fog and swish-swash of the windshield wipers. At that moment, I did something I’ve been doing a lot lately. I reminded myself that the news I received almost exactly a month ago is indeed real. I may have to pinch myself a least once a day to believe it, but at [...] It’s official: I’ve bought my plane tickets to go to Haiti in February. The trip is part of my Johns Hopkins University Public Health Nursing clinical rotation. Haiti covers the western third of the Caribbean island of Hispaniola. Seven other students, Dr. Beth Sloand, and myself will be flying from DC, to Miami, into the Haitian capital city of Port-au-Prince. From there we will be taking a small charter plane to our destination, Jérémie (Jeremi in Kréyòl), a city of about 31,000 people that is almost isolated from the rest of the country. In Jérémie, we’ll be doing several community health projects, including providing health screening and education to adolescents, providing interventions [...] After a year and a half of pre-reqs at BCCC trying to retrain my brain how to think scholastically again after 15 years in the workforce as a designer and illustrator, I was so excited to finally start working toward my BSN at Hopkins and get moving. Classes were over, and then late August appeared in about 6 seconds. Next step: orientation. Then, the first week of classes were on, and I was in the organization zone of hardcopy binders and separators and folders for each week’s material on my Mac. ‘I can totally stay on top of this’ [...] As you may have heard, I wrote a children’s book and I am working on getting it available to th e public. Of course, this is easier said then done. After meeting with Lynn Schultz-Writsel, the director of the Office of Marketing and Communications and Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing, she suggested that I do two things to get my name out. 1) Begin a blog 2) Make a UTube with the illustrations and a narration of the story line Check back for updates on the books availability and video of it’s narration as I hope to [...] In my years as a nurse practitioner providing house calls to homebound older adults and their families, some of the most poignant experiences I have had are with the families of completely paralyzed older adults. In one particular family, the “successful” children had moved up and out of the under resourced, chaotic neighborhood in which the family had lived for decades. The remaining child, a 50-year-old woman, was taking care of their mother who had been completely paralyzed by a stroke years earlier. This caregiver told me she had never completely gotten her life together, reported that she had [...] |
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