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Nursing Team returns after week-long mission work in Haiti

Challenging journey enabled nurses to enliven the true values of Bon Secours

Richmond, VA (March 10, 2010) -- In late February through early March, 2010, a group of nine nursing students, faculty and alumnae from Bon Secours Memorial College of Nursing served a weeklong medical mission in Haiti, traveling to remote areas and treating patients in make-shift medical clinics, often in open air school buildings. When a devastating earthquake struck this Caribbean nation in January, the team’s mission became more important – despite travel challenges and last-minute changes in plans.

Since 2000, Bon Secours Memorial College of Nursing has conducted annual mission trips to Haiti, where the goal is to immerse the group in another culture and to provide nursing care to those in need – following the Bon Secours mission of providing quality medical care, with compassion, to individuals in need. The mission trip gives nurses – especially the students – the opportunity to learn how to use nursing and assessment skills to help others – without the comfort zone of hospitals and technology.

“Our goal was to teach the students and to remind ourselves that as nurses, we can assess and address the needs of patients without the help of lab work, x-rays, and other technical machinery,” says Amy E. Feurer RN, MSN, FNP, and a faculty member of Bon Secours Memorial College of Nursing who served on the Haiti mission. “This included physically touching every person who came to see us – and listening intently. And we accomplished this goal!”

In addition to Feurer, the group included two additional faculty members -- Ann Pryor, RN, MS, ANP and Trina Gardner, RN, MSN – College alumna Kathy Faw, RN, who works at Bon Secours Memorial Regional Medical Center – and nursing students Trevi Wilson, Kristen Kennedy, Stacy White, Rebecca Heck, and Gina Groome.

Each day – from 6 am to 6 pm – the mission team would head out carrying the 23 suitcases of medical supplies – each weighing 50 pounds – working in open-air schools that had been transformed into clinics.

“We primarily administered wound care,” says Feurer. “We treated a woman who had been hit in the face with a piece of concrete during the earthquake. We cared for a young boy who had been kicked in the head by a goat. We treated various burns and other earthquake related injuries. Many of those that we saw had fungal infections, scabies, HTN, anemia, parasites, GERD, and were malnourished. We treated roughly 600 patients in one week.”

Roads less traveled.

Planning for the mission began in July 2009, but when the earthquake struck Haiti in January, the group faced a variety of challenges, including rerouting their flight to land in the Dominican Republic. A week before their scheduled departure form the U.S., the group altered their accommodations to now go to the Haitian tent city of Pandiousou, where they stayed at the Sisters of the Incarnation. Once there, they faced transportation challenges, with the road infrastructure non-existent. Traveling eight hours from the Santo Domingo airport to Pandiousou, the group traveled on rough roads requiring a 4-wheel drive vehicle, encountering flat tires and loose spark plugs along the way. Despite these challenges, the team remained committed to serving the people of Haiti.

“The people of Haiti were truly amazing. They were gracious and kind,” says Feurer. “We were often told, ‘My country is your country – Welcome!’ The people are gentle yet strong. One patient walked five hours to come see us for health care. Another woman living in the tent next to our guest house came over and offered me her chair when she saw me sitting on some steps. I just could not believe that this person who had been living in a tent for over a month now was giving up her seat for me!”

Following the values and mission of Bon Secours – a national faith-based, Catholic health system – the group was able to successfully accomplish their goals. They prayed multiple times a day, and knowing that others back in their home communities were also praying for them gave them the extra encouragement each day. They practiced the values of Bon Secours: respect, compassion, justice, integrity, quality, innovation, stewardship, and growth.

Feurer says that when the days got long or the road a little too rough (literally), they would pause and remember why they came – to serve others in great need – and they reminded each other that their “tough” days were limited – but for the Haitians, this was their life!

Flexibility and compassion most important!

“What we found most rewarding was to be able to touch the people and help them in whatever way possible,” notes Feurer. “They always seemed to have a smile for you. Their resilience is amazing. The friendships that we created with our translators will last a lifetime.”

Coming from a modern, fast-paced society where Americans are bound by time on a watch, the Bon Secours nursing team in Haiti traded in time and scheduling for patience, flexibility, compassion, listening and extending a hand. The nurses quickly learned that Haitians often do not know the time – or the day in many cases. Haitians truly live in the moment, and the nurses learned to be flexible in this as well, sitting with patients and working until the last patient had been seen. Skills such as flexibility and compassion were essential in serving patients, and carried more weight than medical experience.

“While having the knowledge to know how to treat what you see is pertinent, one can do so much just by being present. Listening and extending a hand is just as worthy,” says Feurer.

About Bon Secours Virginia in Richmond

Bon Secours Richmond () is a part of Bon Secours Virginia (BSV), the fourth largest and only faith-based health system in Virginia, which is comprised of Bon Secours Richmond and Bon Secours Hampton Roads. Bon Secours Virginia includes seven award-winning hospitals: four in Richmond (St. Mary’s Hospital, Memorial Regional Medical Center, Richmond Community Hospital and St. Francis Medical Center) and three in Hampton Roads. Bon Secours brings together a network of hospitals, primary care practices, ambulatory care sites and continuing care facilities to provide quality health care services to thousands of Virginians. The not-for-profit Catholic health system employs nearly 11,000 people, 7,000 in Richmond and 4,000 in Hampton Roads. Bon Secours Virginia hospitals offer a full-range of services including cardiac, women’s, children’s, orthopaedics, oncology, neurosciences, surgery. More information on the Bon Secours Memorial College of Nursing can be found at .

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