SON Blogs

The New Face of Nursing: Summer 2008

kstaub1 — Tue, 06 May 2008 13:47:00 GMT

Members of the Johns Hopkins Nursing magazine advisory board--click the "comments" link below to tell us what you think of the summer 2008 issue.

Does this issue:

Reflect the mission, strategic goals, and values of Johns Hopkins Nursing?
Uphold standards of accuracy, fairness, and integrity?
Meet the high standards set for editorial content, literary quality, and design?

We're looking forward to reading your comments and discussing them at our meeting on May 29, 2008.

Many thanks,
Kelly Brooks-Staub & Lynn Schultz-Writsel

April Showers Bring May...Showers

chrisb — Thu, 01 May 2008 20:10:00 GMT

Has anyone else noticed how much it rains in Baltimore in the spring? They turned the fountain on at the SON the other day and I couldn't even tell it was on because it was pouring down rain. Anyway, enjoy the springtime weather while it lasts SONers because when June starts and the relative humidity hovers around 150% you'll wish it was raining!

I also just noticed it has been since December since I last blogged...whoops. Well see I don't have as much recruitin' this time of year, so I have little to talk about on a day-to-day basis besides the goings-on outside my window.* When recruiting end we switch into high gear to put all the classes together. This includes interviews, tours, open house, and accepted students day. Neadless to say we are always busy here in the Office of Admissions and Student Services!

Moving on. I recently completed a rare spring recruiting trip to Oregon, and guess what, it rained there too! If you haven't been to Portland lately they're doing a lot of construction downtown. Portland State University is expanding its campus and the city is extending its streetcar system. Long story short...traffic! You know it's messed up when your GPS system doesn't know where to take you and you start yelling at it. Oh, GPS I can't stay mad at your sweet voice.

Now I'm back in Bmore and it's almost summer break!!!!!....for the Trad students, sorry Accels. For all of you stuck here in Charm City for the summer here are some things to check out:

1.) New Farmers Market coming to Harbor East at 1000 Lancaster St: Open Saturdays from June 14th to October 25th, 9 AM to 1 PM.

2.) Orioles Baseball at Camden Yards. Catch them while they're in 1st Place! www.orioles.com

3.) Fort McHenry. Multiple events, Memorial Day (May 26th), Flag Day (June 16th), Independence Day (You should know this), Defeneders Day (Sept 12-14) www.nps.gov/fomc

Day Trip Destination:

Washington D.C. - take a day in our Nations Capital. Only 45 mins away and you can always drive to Silver Spring or Greenbelt and take the Metro into the city. For events, check out this: www.washington.org

That's it. Good luck with finals!

-Chris

*window view consists of small patch of grass, parking pad, and brick wall, i.e. nothing much.

Finals around the bend

jenice — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 13:53:00 GMT

So I have been seriously slacking in my blog writing. It could be due to the 3 10-14 page papers, statistic homework that takes me a few hours to complete, stats quizzes, a 50 question take home test, and that on top of my weekly case studies and clinical write-ups…wfeew…and still working on weekends on top of this! So yes things have been just a tad hectic since I got back from spring break.

I finished my clinical hours this week, all 196+ hours, so that’s out of the way now as well. It was a great learning experience and I really enjoyed being out of my comfort zone. Having a great preceptor was key to that though. I wouldn’t have kept my sanity if he had made it difficult for me. He was very patient with me through my learning, which I am very thankful for. His staff at the office was great as well and made me feel welcomed and took time to answer my questions. All in all, a great experience that I will carry with me throughout my career.

Now I get to concentrate on studying for finals. I have 5, yes 5, finals to take next week. Thankfully they are spread out through the week, one on each day. Not like last semester where I had 3 on one day!! God bless the scheduling person!!

I will be taking classes this summer (the way my program is in order to graduate in May). I have my adult clinical which I hope I will be more comfortable in. Not sure where it is yet though. But I do have 3 weeks of some well deserved respite before classes start again.

Good luck to all of you for finals!!!

Nursing School can be fun!

lauren — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 01:16:00 GMT

Birthday parties make school fun...

The spring babies (now adults) in my class are celebrating the aniversaries (again) of their 21st birthdays... one more year of wisdom and knowledge to add onto the chapter book of life. Surprise parties, picnics, and planned celebrations sprinkle the weekends during this final spring term. Unwrapping surprise presents and delving into decadent birthday cake makes the end of the year a little less tortuous.

I cannot say enough positive things about my classmates. The students have made this experience and transition well-worth the 2,700 mile plane trip across the United States.

Birthdays are a time to celebrate one's life, and I am so fortunate to share these fun moments with incredibly interesting and compassionate students (and future RN's) who will make a tremendous difference in the world.

Here's to another year of life, and one year completed (with one more to go...) in the SON!

Summer Up

david — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 02:45:00 GMT

Remember when you were 10 and mom and dad wouldn't let you open your Christmas gifts until the entire family was up, awake, and showered...oooooh the anticipation!That’s exactly what I feel like with only 3 more weeks till summer. Note to self if you will be attending nursing school here. The 2nd semester is a much bigger bear than the 1st. And from the second year students I've spoken with, the 3rd and 4th semesters are even bigger yet. It’s cool though. It’s more of a challenge than when I tried to drink a gallon of milk in an hour...and I’m a lactard. Ugh. So as the summer approaches, my energies are focused on finding hospital work as an intern/extern/CNA/tech in the land of John Elway, Coors Light and mile-highness...Denver. What is the difference between an extern, intern, CNA, and tech? Well, come to find out it depends on the institution you're asking. There isn't a standard definition of skills for what a student does at one hospital verses another. Slightly frustrating, majorly confusing. Phlebotomy, IV's, vitals...you never know what you're going to get. Now I must take this opportunity to tip my hat and brag about Hopkins Alumni. As I am in hot pursuit of work out in Denver, I'm very aware that it is often not what you know, but who you know that lands you a job in this day and age. So I sent a few emails out to Hopkins Alum in the greater Denver area and they have been amazingly helpful in their responses. Some send advice. Some send contacts. Some even send an invite to stay at their house and offer a ride to and from the airport. It really is a wonderful community to be associated with. Fingers crossed, I will have employment in Denver soon enough!

Tuesday, April 15 - 6:38 PM:

daniel — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 22:37:00 GMT

Do you remember the One World Cafe? It was #11 on my top 10 places to study. Well, I am there now and it is just in true form this evening. Half price quesadillas and burritos and Led Zeppelin playing really, really loud. I opted out of the half price Mexican fare and went for their lemon pepper lentil soup and an order of chips and salsa with a side of their very, very tasty gaucamole. What more could a person ask for while studying psychiatric nursing? I think not much more, except, perhaps, for a finely hopped, ice cold tap beverage...but we won't go there.

Twenty days until final exam week of our second semester as of today and today it was beautiful outside, let me tell you. I was deeply challenged to remain focused on my studies as a gorgeous, blue sky spring day rolled past. After staying up way too late last night pursuing nursing externship opportunities I finally succumbed to a short nap in full sun on the lush berth of thick, green grass that some quad nestled in the back recesses of the Homewood campus of Johns Hopkins provided. It was...sublime.

Well, that is what this nursing student is doing in the face of psychiatric nursing exam #2 (Not to mention reviewing the appropriate drug therapy for anxiety, schizophrenia, ECT and OCD). Until we meet again, peace, hugs and luv nugs!

Daniel

Thursday, April 10 - 9:15 PM:

daniel — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 01:11:00 GMT

At the moment I am in my psychiatric nursing clinical rotation. What I can tell you is that I think psychiatric nursing is both great and terrible, heroic and sad. What do you do with someone who is no longer able to function or someone who is so depressed or is convinced that they hear voices or that people are living in the walls of their home or who might want to kill their neighbor or thinks their neighbor wants to kill them? What do you do? If they are silent, or shun you, or tell you to go away, or say the same thing over and over and over again, what do you do? I don’t like to think about it. I would rather not have to face it. I don’t know if I could day in and day out, week after week.

I am glad there are people who choose to think about it, who get up early in the morning to walk right up to it and face it, and care enough to have hope that the answers will come to these strangers who have lost their way. I am thankful there are people brave enough to try things that have never been tried, not absolutely blindly, even if they are pretty near blind, but making as educated a guess as anyone can honestly hope to make about which treatment or drug or procedure might work for so and so. The patients are interesting, but what surprised me the most is the fact that the doctors and especially the nurses are what fascinate me in psychiatric medicine, especially the ones who have been at it for a long, long time.

I think I may have finally come to understand a bit more why doctors dash in and out of patient’s rooms in a blink and why their handwriting is so awfully messy. Following them on rounds I was impressed to see how many people with complex histories they were considering and visiting. Then I would sit with them as they sat down with colleagues for hours to discuss their patients and make treatment plans for them. Once decisions were reached one would feverishly scribble down the order on a paper chart while the resident pecked away at a computer documenting before a nurse would pick up the next piece of paper full of numbers, lab values and accounts of past events. All the while the clock ticked toward the next appointed time that everyone was supposed to be present for…another meeting, lunch, handing out medicines, that time promised to a family who is waiting to know what to do next with their father, the man in their lives who at one time had all of the answers for them.

I gained a new respect for how much these people have to do in a morning before lunch, or in an afternoon before dinner, or at two in the morning before they try to take a cat-nap, not just the doctors, but a multidisciplinary team of doctors, residents, students, social workers and nurses…people who want to help people. They are dedicated to (some even obsessed with) solving the questions in people’s lives that most of us can’t or won’t deal with.

A Blog-Worthy Experience in OB

lauren — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 14:00:00 GMT

Thursday:
8:00 AM: A 19 year-old Hispanic Woman comes into the unit for a scheduled C-Section. She speaks no English. With a few years of undergraduate Spanish and a recent medical terminology course under my belt, she's designated to be my patient for the day.
8:30: As a translator, I help the nurse complete her assessment information and prepare her for the operating room.
9:00: I orient her husband to the recovery room, assist him in gowning up for the operating room, and explain what will happen during the procedure.
9:30: My patient and I are in the OR with the scrub nurse, resident and attending anesthesiologist, and resident and attending surgeon. As my patient receives her epidural, the attending anesthesiologist explains to me step-by-step what the resident will do to administer the pain medication. I help to translate this process to my patient.
9:45: I gown myself in sterile scrubs and gloves to assist in the operation with the surgeon and resident. Elbow to elbow with the surgeon, she explains to me the process of the cesarean. Layer by layer my patient is sliced open. Upon reaching the uterus, one last precise incision is made and the bag of water is ruptured. My gown is soaked in amniotic fluid, my hands and wrists are covered in blood.
10:04: The attending pulls out a 38 week-old baby boy. My hands catch part of the baby and cradle him as the umbilical cord is cut. The attending surgeon pulls the uterus out of the woman’s abdomen while cleansing the patient’s inner cavity. She points out to me the ovaries and the fallopian tubes. I help the attending and resident by retracting the initial incision’s edges while my patient’s uterus is sewn back together and returned to the abdomen.
10:45: My patient is stitched up, her baby is in a bassinet nearby undergoing initial assessments, and the surgeons are leaving the OR. I speak with my patient about her delivery, ask her how she is feeling, and reenact the sensation of catching her baby from the uterus, and how beautiful his little face was.
11:15: In the recovery room, I assess the vital signs of my new mom, put a warm blanket on her, and explain to her how to use her patient-controlled anesthesia pump.
11:30: I wrap up her new baby in a warm blanket, bring it to her chest, and we both admire his soft features and tiny body. He sucks on my finger.
11:45: A lesson in breast feeding- My new mom never breast fed . I teach her how to cradle his head against her chest, which sounds to listen for to assure that he is suckling, and I explain the importance of her own milk during the first few hours of the child’s life.
12:00: I recognize the phenomenal opportunity that I have as a nurse to support my patient. I was at her side from the moment she walked in the door to the unit until that priceless moment when her baby suckled from her breast for the first time. For a 19 year-old woman, these moments are scary, anxiety provoking, and extremely personal. As a nursing student and her advocate, I educated and comforted my patient while simultaneously acting as her voice and translator.

Why I chose nursing? For priceless experiences like these: using the Spanish language to coach a fearful young patient through the process of receiving an epidural and catheter; the opportunity teach her the process of breast feeding; and the ability to sooth this new mom’s worries by assuring her that I’ll be at her side through the entire process.

The way I felt today is how I want to feel the rest of my career in nursing.

Day #2 in OB:

lauren — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 17:03:00 GMT

Day #2 was supposed to be more eventful than the previous day’s introduction to the floor. I dreamt about helping a laboring mother through her contractions, coaching her through breathing, and wiping the beads of sweat from her brow. Day #2, however, was surprisingly one of the cleanest days of all my clinical experiences (including psych…). My clinical instructor assigned me to follow the nurse in triage for the 8-hour shift. Triage, as I learned over a grudgingly long shift, is not consistently synonymous with action and excitement. With my hands ready and waiting for feeble little babies to come into the world, I kept watching the entrance to the unit for the admittance of any pregnant woman. No baby-catching fun came my way. Similar to the laboring woman, this second shift was full of waiting and anticipation. Unlike the mother, however, I remained clean, dry, and left the hospital without entering into parenthood.

While patiently waiting for for moms and babies to come through triage, I went through some flashcards to learn OB terminology and techniques for reading fetal heart rate readings. The courses in this program rely on students to be self-motivated learners (AKA independent self-teaching and learning to master concepts). It helps tremendously to carry around flashcards or notes to review a few facts or figures at any time. Many students feel crunched for time and stressed before tests; using some down-time in between classes (or in the clinical setting) helps to overcome some pre-test stress and use well the unexpected free time.

To recap: Day #2- no babies, no blood, amniotic fluid, sweat, or tears. Really, the only gunk (and it wasn’t even bodily) that came my way was from the janitor sweeping the floor clean of lint. When babies do come my way, I will be prepped (thanks to quick moments of flashcard review) with more knowledge about their physiological entrance into the world and what pharmacological interventions may be necessary to sustain their fragile bodies in the beginning of life. Alright, spring babies! I’m waiting…

My week

kathy — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 00:38:00 GMT

My weeks are crazy. When school is in, it's tough to find a spare second to do much of anything. With a lot of planning, a lot of effort and quite a lot of time management, things work in my life. I wouldn't say that I am a typical student. Most of my friends at JHU are single, mid to later 20s somethings, living alone in Baltimore. They attend classes just like me then either go to work (many have community outreach workstudy positions that help Baltimore City in some way), or go home to study/cook/chat on the phone/socialize/whatever. Sometimes I envy them for their life of living in the town where they school, for not having to commute nearly 4 hours a day, or not having a house to run, a relationship to maintain, a mortgage. But then I look at my fiance and am happy that I have him and that we have such a blessed life.

Monday through Wednesday I am at school and physically in class from 8am to 12:30. Now, four and a half hours of sitting in a class may not seem that hard to you, but believe you me, when D.Aschenbrenner (the lady who actually WROTE the pharmacology book) is smiling at you the way that she does and going through drugs like there's no tomorrow, it's tough work to keep up. Or, trying to follow zanny L.Taylor as she literally plays out fluid passing through nephrons and demonstrating exactly where UTIs hit. As I've said before, these instructors are the best of the best and they expect the best of the best from the JHU student. Noone gets by here just by coasting.

Thursday and Friday we will be in the wards. Half of my class has just switched from OB and are now entering the unknown psychiatric wards across Baltimore. We know not what to expect; the only advice given us is, "grow thick skins." Thanks, that's helpful! I was lucky to get one of the only night shifts, from 1-9pm and look forward to my "sleeping in" mornings (yes, I consider 7am sleeping in!). I'll be getting home around 11 on these nights and then it will be up on the 11:30 train with those few short hours before sleep and travel used to work out, pack lunch, run errands and study.

Saturday and Sundays are my all day cram days. I generally take a little time to get the house in order, shop for groceries and plan the weekly meals before really sitting down to go through all the notes for that week. I have the habit of writing out notecards for all of my classes. It's a lot of work, but it seems to be the only way I've seen to get the information into my head.

Usually Dan doesn't mind me working so much because he's doing the same himself. In real estate they always say "while the rest of the world works 9-5, we work 5-9," fitting time in with clients when they themselves are off. Not to say D. doesn't work during the day, he's spending that whole time finding houses, scouting them out for his clients, trying to match that perfect house with the perfect clients and then aligning everything so the offer comes in with a good price that makes everyone happy. No easy feat! And, of course, he holds houses open on Sundays so I get my mandatory 3 hours of hard working quiet study time in on those afternoons. Then finally, if D. doesn't have any more appointments, we enjoy a quiet dinner together and a little bit of well deserved quality time together playing cribbage or just vegging out in front of the TV.

Spring Break

kathy — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 00:27:00 GMT

What does one do on a full week off from school? Well, if you're me, you plan a wedding.

Spring break marks the break between the first seven weeks and the second seven weeks of the term. This term I took 4 required courses and am taking two electives. My required classes are Pharmacology, Pathophysiology and both Psychiatry and Nursing the Childbearing Family. The last two are broken up so I took OB first and now am starting psyc next.

OB was wonderful; it was a whirlwind of woman, fetal and neonate health information. We covered all the development of the fetus, the growing and changing of the mothers body and the normal and problematic states of the newborn. On top of this class, we also had clinical.

Clinical was a blast. I had a wonderful time on both the labor and delivery and postpartum wards. The first day we were running from place to place on the L&D ward and it pretty much continued through my first 3 weeks. Then we transitioned to postpartum and it was an interesting shift from caring of laboring mother to caring of hopefully a well mother and neonate. And my first day on the postpartum ward I had the incredible opportunity to care for a very good friend of mine. She had had a beautiful baby girl in the morning and was just transferred up to my floor when I came on... what a gift to be there for their first day as a new family, it really was such a privilege.

Pharmacology and Pathophysiology is kickin' buns hard. Both classes are so much information over such a short time; so many drugs and so much physiology that goes behind it. My instructors continue to be top notch and help from friends and the support of my fiance lets me get in as much studying as I can while I continue to do relatively well in class and clinical.

Then, of course, there's real life outside of school. I am still commuting and still trying to live my life even though school overwhelms me at times. On Feb. 17th Dan and I ran our second marathon in Austin. We'd been training for 5 months, going out in rain or shine during the winter months to run our long runs on Saturdays starting in our town just outside the DC border, heading NW to Bethesda and down a the wonderful Capital Crescent Trail to Georgetown in DC and back up through Rock Creek Park. Twenty three miles total and we did it twice before actually running the marathon! The marathon was so much fun and I’ve sworn off marathoning for the rest of my life (or at least until next year when I forget how much it hurts). Austin is a very hip town and Dan and I enjoyed a much needed break from work and school to get in sync again.

And finally, the wedding; I put off planning anything for when I have a little bit of time. Well, with school, marathon and generally trying to run a house and stay on speaking terms with my fiancé (oh, we also just purchased our first home...!) sometimes important stuff has to be sacrificed. Wedding planning is pushed into the nooks and crannies of my daily life; phone calls to set up appointments with DJs here, emailing with the photographer there, a quick hello at the florist and that’s about as much as I can handle in a day. With one week off, I crammed it in. The florist, the photographer, DJ, caterer, invitations, websites and dress shopping…all of it in one week taking a little time to study here and there. Now that school is back in, it will be another 7 weeks before I’ll have any time to dedicate to planning and hey, that’s okay with me, everything always works out in the end and at the end of it, I have Belize to look forward to!

Our experiences in New Orleans...

nola — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 19:01:00 GMT

Team NOLA is back after an inspiring week of work in the Lower 9th Ward. Over the next few weeks, Team NOLA members will be blogging on this forum about there experiences rebuilding the Lower 9th Ward, working with the clinic and mobile medical unit, the people we met who have impacted our lives, fun times in New Orleans, and varying perspectives and updates from our trip. Pictures are coming soon!

Team NOLA will also be giving a presentation about our trip on Monday, April 7th from 12-1pm in Room 9/10 at the School of Nursing. We invite everyone to come - we have A LOT to share!

Check back soon!

What Nursing School Does to You

david — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 01:38:00 GMT

Nursing school impels you to do a grab bag of things. Now I haven't quite danced an entire years worth of schooling yet, but from what I've experienced thus far, it drives you to:

1-Combine. You find yourself combining studying with eating, driving, cooking, cycling, walking, showering and/or _________ (fill in the blank with just about anything).
2-Prioritize. Studying over eating. Eating over sleeping. Sleeping over spending time with friends and family. And at the end of two years you may find yourself hungry, tired, and alone, but definitely the most intelligent nurse in the hospital.
3-Change lifestyle patterns. That is unless of course you already spend 25 hours a week studying pharmacology, consider an 8 minute walk a day's workout and find Florence Nightingale making nightly appearances in your dreams. Yikes.
4-Ingest knowledge. While it may be somewhat likened to opening a fire hose in front of your face, the amount of information presented to you and subsequently digested is nothing short of awesome.
5-Love. Love for the job, love for the challenges, and especially love for the people who are sharing in the rollercoaster known as nursing school. Which I suppose makes the take-away message: do what you love and love what you do.

Friday, March 14 - 10:49 AM:

daniel — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 13:25:00 GMT

I was walking to the west across North Charles Street in Charles (not the) Village the other day, right at the busy intersection of 33^rd. As much as I can I like to command my spirit to take note of the people around me, and sometimes this manner of being really pays off, as with the satisfying exchange of a heartfelt greeting with “all the fixins” like a smile and even eye contact. Well this day it really paid well to pay attention to my fellow human pedestrians because as I offered my greeting to someone headed in the opposite direction, not only did they give me the simple pleasure of that friendly gesture of eye contact and a big smile, but they emphatically pointed up to the sky behind me. I was compelled to comply with their suggestion and turned around to see one of the most vivid and breathtaking rainbows I have seen in quite awhile (Not the one pictured above, obviously; that one was in N. Virginia where we used to live). I glanced to see where the wonderful person who had shared this gorgeous vision with me had gone and found them standing a short distance gazing at the heavenly spectacle. They turned in my direction, I think in order to be sure that I had gotten the message. I gave a large and satisfied grin and a hearty thumbs-up and relished that moment which today seems painfully to arrive only so rarely – that moment when two perfect strangers can join, un-afraid, in the sincere appreciation of something beautiful.

I thought you might like to hear about this. My experience on the corner of North Charles and 33^rd with the stranger and the rainbow makes me think of a day that right now seems so far away – graduation. The rainbow gives me hope for arriving at graduation and even that day when the NCLEX is a memory of yet another hurdle overcome in the journey of becoming a nurse.

One of the nice things about JHU SON is the mixture of students you will find here at various stages in the process of nursing education. At any given time you may find in the halls a student who is just one semester ahead of you or someone who is already a nurse and has practiced anywhere from a very short time in the profession to quite a long time and is now working on some form of an advanced degree in the field. These people also give folks like me hope that someday we will be nurses and we will be diligent to find yet more challenges to place in our way in order to stimulate more stress in our lives and in the lives of those who love us. More importantly, however, in so doing we will find more growth and an even greater ability to care for people who can’t care for themselves.

As we are learning here at JHU SON, those of us who are aspiring to become nurses are also aspiring to become a part of a health care system that is anything but a system and more of a collection of scattered and disjointed fragments that are about as effective in delivering “health care” as rush hour is at delivering the masses from their urban workshop cubicles to their suburban domiciles. Here at Hopkins we are continually being challenged to actually “think” about this so that we may not only become nurses but also active participants in finding a solution to such a mind boggling and monumental problem that is effecting us all. It is not just a campaign issue that will find its value only in the rhetoric of the election process and then go away. It is not a question that can be answered merely by choosing the right candidate for President. It is the sort of thing that can only hope to be addressed if it becomes and then remains important to lots and lots of people, nurses in particular.

I am realizing that there is so much more to becoming a nurse than a nametag with the letters “RN BSN” on it and four or five patients to look after every shift. Becoming a nurse perhaps ought to be viewed more like the privilege of becoming a citizen of a nation with all of its inherent rights and its responsibilities. In this context, consider these words of the Senator from Chicago, Illinois, Carl Schurz as he spoke about the American citizen in 1899 with my changes in parenthesis:

I confidently trust that the (nurses of today) will prove themselves…too wise not to detect the false pride or the dangerous ambitions or the selfish schemes which so often hide themselves under that deceptive cry of (false pride in the profession): (“ANA/NANDA/AMA, right or wrong!”). They will not fail to recognize that our dignity, our free institutions and the peace and welfare of this and coming generations of (nurses and their patients) will be secure only as we cling to the watchword of (true nursing practice): “Our (profession) – when right to be kept right; when wrong to be put right.”

Isn’t that what being a nurse is all about?

The original qoute of Senator Schurz can be found in the book: The True Patriot by Eric Liu and Nick Hanauer, 2007: Seattle, Washington. www.truepat.org

Half-Way...

lauren — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 13:09:00 GMT

Spring has sprung and spring break is knocking on our front doors... really breaking the door down. We are all ready for our upcoming ten days of freedom.

This term is half-way through. It's notorious (and now I understand why) for the intense work load with pathophysiology, pharmacology, OB and Psychiatric Nursing rotations. I just finished my Psych rotation and will begin OB after the break. The experience in the psychiatric unit was tremendous. My clinical instructor's contribution to our learning was priceless, and the interaction with patients was humbling. Each day I left the unit with a broader sense of what happiness, joy, and suffering means to different people.

Here are some of my favorite snippets of information from pharmacology and pathophysiology flashcard* land:

1. The length of the human kidney is comparable to the length of a business card.

2. Tuberculosis may be in any part of the human body, not just the lungs.

3. Periwinkle isn't just the pretty little flower- It is also used therapeutically in medicine as a pain reliever.

* Flashcards make the difference when studying for tests...A very effective technique for memorizing different medications.

What I've learned from fellow students:

1. After fleeing countries of origin during civil wars, taking tests in the university setting really isn't a big deal. What a valuable perspective to keep in mind when it seems that the world is ending after a bad test!

2. Balancing family and school is a challenge. When I think about how busy I am with school, I remember my peers who take care of their children, husbands, or wives as well. My perspective on "busy" changes. One of the nurses on my psych unit mentioned how she raised her two teenagers while getting through nursing school. She would sit in her car to study.

3. I can travel around the world just by listening to classmate's stories from their international experiences. The greatest lessons that I've learned during this program actually come from my fellow students. From years of travel, teaching, and learning in different parts of the world, they bring to this program unique perspectives on how to live life in a manner that respects their happiness and health.

Tuesday, March 4, 2008 – 12:39 PM:

daniel — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 17:22:00 GMT

I just finished a bowl of Carma’s (Carma’s Café in Charles [not the] Village) delicious, homemade, Icelandic yogurt sprinkled with her truly authentic, handcrafted granola. This brings me to one of the more trivial injustices in life that I would like to discuss for a moment; and oh how I wish we were limited only to such injustices. I speak of the manner in which people so loosely and misleading use the term “granola.” It can be an outright slighting remark directed at people who live and act in certain ways, wearing a variety of brightly colored clothing made from all-natural fibers and who are wonderfully unconcerned with the fad hair fashions of the day. Sometimes it is an utterance of genuine and fond affection in reference to some the earthier and more socially engaged, environmentally conscious, metaphysically guided, Dr.Bronner’s soap using, and yes for some even patchouli and Birkenstock wearing folks among us. Of greater concern, however, is when people use the term “granola” in an attempt to describe some lame cereal product and pass it off as the genuine article. I say all of this to punctuate the following remark: Carma’s granola is the genuine article…it is indeed granola; and boy was it a treat to eat.

I am not writing to you today simply to discuss granola and all of its implications socially and politically, but to share with you some of my thoughts as we approach the spring break:

I am so proud of my fellow classmates. This thought resounds in my mind as I reflect this afternoon. I think it was six but it may have been seven of my friends here at JHU SON who scored 100% or higher on our second pathophysiology exam. Woo-hoo! I am studying with the best and the brightest and I am grateful for that.
A shout out to all of the great people who came to Accepted Students Day here at JHU SON! I met some (Indigo and her mother from Brattleboro, Vermont and a pleasant gentleman from New Jersey just to name a few) and was able to give a tour or two of the school and offer my recommendations on places in Baltimore to get really good food. I hope you decide to reside here for your nursing education.
I wanted to direct your attention to some of the rich history associated with Johns Hopkins University and Johns Hopkins Hospital. You may have heard of “The Four Doctors.” These are William H. Welch, William S. Halsted, William Osler and no, not another William, but rather Howard A. Kelly. These men were indeed great. Pioneers in medicine as we know it, they were also part of the original faculty here at the JHU School of Medicine. Have you ever heard, however, of Dr. Vivian Thomas? If you have, well done to you for paying attention to those little known heroes and giants of the human spirit who stand quietly in history’s back room. Men like Vivian Thomas deserve a place front and center. If you do not, you should know about this man and his story, a very large part of which took place right here in East Baltimore at Johns Hopkins Hospital. I even know where his portrait hangs in the Blalock Building here at the hospital. The movie telling his story is called, “Something the Lord Made” and I highly, highly recommend it.
Lastly, I want to say that life here at JHU SON is still wonderful, even in the midst of pharmacology and pathophysiology. As tough as these two classes are for some of us, it is all part and parcel of the experience and somehow, these professors are actually getting us to start thinking like a nurse! That is very exciting indeed I must tell you.

From Betouze village, to the "cage", and back to Baltimore...

Haiti4 — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 23:31:00 GMT

Well, friends. We are officially back, did you miss us?

Our Friday in Haiti was a slow but dense one where after a morning of bagging more multivitamins, we found ourselves about an hour's drive outside of Jeremie in the village of Betouze for a rural health post again with HHF. We rolled in deep with 12-15 other community health agents from HHF and set up camp for another day of brilliant health work. We kicked it off outside with songs, intros in our best Creole, then some energizers with the girls and our world famous skit starring the Char-lez, our "Jenjean" (sugar daddy), and passerby teen girl, Na-talee, our Haitian-American extraordinaire (whose Creole language skills, along with Rachel's are totally kick-butt by the way!). With John Deere hats as prizes to boot, courtesy of Caroline's family, girls and health agents alike donned the green caps and smiels as we plowed through the afternoon.

Via the local health center, a dusty concrete building with about 6 open air rooms, we did more adolescent girl screenings than anticipated and topped over our original 200 expected for the week. Go Team Haiti! Our team wowed themselves yet again fluidly working together like a well-oiled Akamil maize & beans machine. Nearly 40 tetanus vaccines, heights & weights, blood pressures, and anemia screenings & referrals together, while Beth & Laura did their magic in consultation rooms with women and children identifying more scabies and ear infections, we ended the day with an sunny afternoon pool dip and conch soup with soft bread rolls. M-m-Mph!

That night we celebrated with our translators downtown, and were graced with Beth's wicked dance floor salsa moves in the downtown Oasis "cage," a dance floor concealed by bamboo to protect the inner lovebirds and crazy Americans kicking it after a weary week. Our walk home was a special one with sweaty headlamps, local dogs and an infinite blanket of stars to keep us all company as we trudged back up the hill to our netted beds.

I'm sure you'll hear more in the next few days from us about our group's adventures and learning, and hopefully you'll get to see more pictures. After a last quiet sunrise, 3 planes, more contact with missionaries, and a near luggage fiasco at our port of entry, I'll have to say overall that it was an incredible week to share with 9 other amazing people I got to know a little more. Tiring and heavy in that really good way, you know?

Haiti is a beautiful, busy, unique and special place where more goes on that the BBC could ever truly convey. It exudes an overwhelming sense of potential and energy amidst the UN peacekeepers, stories of domestic violence, poor water quality & access, deforestation and random street refuse. It's a beautiful place where people meet poverty in the face and greet perfect strangers on the road. It's a land where health met hope on its blind corners where community health agents get it done every day. And it's a country of windy dusty roads where 8 rising nurses, a fierce faculty leader, and our lovely grad student all bravely found common ground over laughs in the hot sun with Haitian girls, over the quietude of hands on tired mens' backs and women's pregnant bellies, over babies awaiting the tiniest of oral polio drops in the morning drizzle, and admist a growing understanding and yet far more questions of a country & community's health needs in the face of it all.

Mesi anpil, Haiti - Ou bell. (Thanks very much Haiti - you are beautiful)

Chocolate cake, key lime pie, and dark hospital rooms

Haiti4 — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 02:08:00 GMT

Fortune smiled on us on our second day of health fair as we descended on some lost school complex in the town of Jeremie. After a day of hardcore training 24 hours prior, we were armed with blood pressure cuffs,syringes filled with tetanus vaccine, and lancets the likes of which probably haven't been seen since medieval times. Our education session went swimmingly even though we had to make a number of last minute changes, and wind blew our training materials around the yard. In the course of our health fairs, we were able to refer a number of girls with hemoglobins as low as 4.9, one of whom may have also been coming down with a case of malaria. It was pretty coo to be able to have such a clear impact, let alone the potential lasting effect of our education and donations. Special note of the day: chocolate cake for dessert at dinner. Booyah!

Wednesday sent us back to our favorite stomping grounds at HHF and the Center of Hope where we were able to follow around a local physician, observe pre-natal assessments, and weigh babies like woah. Several bagfuls of fried plantains later, we found ourselves in the Missionaries of Charity compound. We first jumped into the women's side where we made bracelets, gave hand massages (which quickly moved onto full body massages, much to the surprise and possibly, shock, of several in our group), and painted nails. The ladies seemed to love it, and we gave the sisters who work there what was left of our string. The men in the compound across the street were ready and excited to have us come over. One foot into the ward and half of the guys were already taking off shirts and flipping over for a little lotion and rub. Needless to say, this was music to our ears. Although I'm sure the fellas were willing to keep our attention on them, the time had come for the children's feeding. Although we didn't have the balls they wished we would have brought, they were placated by the bubbles that you can hold in your hand without having them burst. That's right, bubbles out of the bottle that don't burst when they touch! Real cool as long as you don't pay attention to the fact that they leave residue on whatever they hand on. No matter, it was a bubble factory for as long as we could stand to blow them. We had lots of fun with the kids; it was nice to share a little love and affection.

Today the main activity was listening to Dr. Sloand's presentation of her dissertation, a presentation on the danger signs of infant distress, and visiting the local hospital. The presentation went well in both English and Creole, even though the allotted time of the presentation was perhaps a little shorter than she had expected. Still, adaptation is the key, and I believe everything went well and that the stakeholders here were pleased to hear what she had found. The presentation by Ada and Rachel brought smiles and at least 4 rounds of song from the health workers who were in town for their monthly training. We provided them with basic information on the warning signs of infants such as cyanosis, jaundice, respiratory rate above 60, seizures, difficulty feeding, etc. The participants all received a laminated handout with photos and descriptions that we anticipate can be brought with them in their practice.

The hospital, however, was a different story. In many ways, our experience there was powerful and dramatic. We were brought on a brief tour by Sister Sofi who showed us through the different wards and introduced us to many of the patients. Many needed medicines aren't affordable, and nearly all non-medical services must be paid for out of pocket. Words seem insignificant as I sit here reflecting on the experience, and so I'll just leave it be for now. We can tell this story better, perhaps, another time.

The capstone highlight of the day, however, was yet another dessert: key lime pie.

Tomorrow we head out for our final day of work in this beautiful part of Haiti. We'll be visiting a rural health station and possibly using some of our skills learned from our health fairs. For now, goodnight!

To be or not to be... experienced that is

jenice — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 20:07:00 GMT

As I sit here in Panera, ready to continue and tackle my 13 page take home mid-term…I decided that I really need to get on with writing another blog. A couple of my fellow bloggers have asked me a couple of questions during our meetings (and I was asking them because I was stuck on what to write about). They asked, before continuing on to get your MSN and become a nurse practitioner, is it best to get out there after nursing school and get some experience first? Now granted, I’m coming from the “experienced” side but I have observed a couple of things from those who are in my class with no nursing experience.

To be experienced… As I have said before I have about 5 years of critical care experience ranging from ER to ICU. I always want to get out and do the nursing thing before going on for my MSN, but I didn’t want to wait too long. My experience has definitely helped me during my course here so far. I have called upon the knowledge, skills, and critical thinking I have learned many times for tests and clinical experiences. But my experience and knowledge only goes so far in that, like in my previous blog, I have absolutely no idea what to do with children. In that aspect, I have no experience and I fell like a new grad. In my first clinical with adults (something I am confident in) my preceptor kept telling me to think “practitioner” not “nurse”. So there is a difference. During the initial exam, deciding what is emergent, what is not, getting the patient’s history, and doing your physical exam, a lot of it is the same. But as a practitioner, you are thinking, differential diagnoses. You are going through them thinking what supports this and what rules some out, what tests should I do to support my thinking. Then you go through possible treatments. I know nurses do this as well…be we anticipate the treatment. Trust me it’s a bit daunting when you’re the one who makes the final decision! All in all, I fell better that I do have experience to call upon. It gives the confidence I need and I rest in the fact that I have been through this before where I felt like I have no idea what I’m doing but it will all come to me in time.

Not to be… Those who have gone right into the MSN program from their nursing undergrad do have the upper hand in some aspects. They haven’t taken a “break” from school. They still have that study mentality and remember how to write 10 page papers. Trust me, when you go out and make money and can go out every night of the week and not have a test to study for…it VERY hard to give that up and go back to sitting in front of a book every night and living off student loans…again! They also don’t need to be told “think like a nurse practitioner, not nurse”. They are going into this fresh and their minds are open. They can be taught to think like this. It is hard to transition your roles in the profession.

So with that said, I guess it’s up to you. I’m glad I went out there and did it and saw what areas I am interested in. I very much enjoyed being a nurse and I always will be no matter what. Guess that’s what sets us apart from physicians.

Sak pa se?

Haiti4 — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 02:09:00 GMT

Sak pa se? What's up? Nap boule! We're on fire!

We arrived in country all shiny-eyed and bushy-tailed, after only a couple glitches on the way. Ol' man winter had a few thoughts in mind in Baltimore the night before our departure, and if we had to make it a nursing diagnosis, it would have been: Delayed travel related to grumpy frost secondary to unfortunate climactic excursions. However after successful, delicious, oreo pie-like interventions, we all made it to Miami in time to catch our flight to Haiti.

Patrick from Matthew 25 picked us up at the airport and with uncommon luck we passed through customs without even a pause - several of our group were simply waved through without any inspection at all. We caught a flight the next morning to Jeremie on a 16-passenger airplane that was able to take most of our luggage with us on our flight. The rest showed up several hours later on the next flight. We were greeted by Bette Gebrian who promptly filed us into line and had us on our way to her beautiful house on a cliff, complete with pool, soap, towel, and complimentary beverage. We were told that the place where we were staying was plush, but our expectations were exceeded from the moment we stepped foot on the gravel.

As our schedule dictated, the first day here we made a trip through the market on a tour with a worker from the Haitian Health Foundation, the group we came to support with our work. Nothing like a group of 9 white-skinned and one American-Haitian working their way through everything from toilet paper to fly-covered shanks of goat randomly looking for bouillon cubes and a mortar and pestle, neither of which we found. The second day we made a trip to Bonbon with our hosts on an day trip to a beach that would otherwise have been out of our reach. Between the naked local boys and the active fish market, the beach experience was chocked full of fun and excitement. We came away with pretty shells, sand in our sandals, and red skin on our arms.

Monday claimed the prize as first day of adolescent girls' health fair day. We spent the morning in the Center of Hope, and organization working with many different populations, in general providing services to pre-natal and post-natal women. One group was able to observe and participate with pre-natal screenings including a fun portable ultrasound machine, while the others were involved with post-natal vaccinations and education. Then after a hearty and tasty lunch, we marched off for our first health fair. It was hard to believe how quickly our preparations came to fruition or downfall as we frantically made ready to meet the onslaught of girls who showed up for this activity in what on sundays becomes a rooster-fighting arena. Overall, the intervention was a huge success and we were immensely pleased with both the turnout and participation. We had about 70 girls show on the first day, all of whom had their height, weight, blood pressure, and hemoglobin measured. If anemic, they were given a referral to the Haitian Health Foundation and provided with a month's worth of iron pills. All girls who participated then headed over to receive tetanus vaccinations and finally a purse filled with the wonderful toothbrushes, toothpastes, shampoos, conditioners, and lotions that were donated, including akamil (a flour of ground beans, rice, and other nutritious things), to take home.

On Tuesday we received orientation about the KOMBIT program that was directed for a year by our very own dear Sara Groves. God bless her soul. The word kombit refers to a group of people acting together to reach a common goal for the betterment of their community. The program is very successful and has reached people from all over the Grand Anse department, within which Jeremie is only a part. The KOMBIT program is aimed at improving maternal and child outcomes. We then went back to the Center of Hope and did some of the same activities that we had done before. It was awesome. After a very well balanced lunch of chili and cornbread, rocking it South Cackalacky style, we headed down to begin our second and final Haitian Hizzle Foundizzle Day. We received an even bigger turnout of about 120 girls, who all received the same rigamarole. The response was overwhelmingly positive;girls were discussing sex and ways to delay sex with participation and gusto. Prior to coming here we had concerns with how well girls empowerment would fly. Others thought that maybe this wasn't the most efficient use of our resources, however, we feel that we were wildly successful and that these girls were prepared to receive the information that we offered to them.

This health fair was the focus and main intervention of our trip here to Haiti. The success was wild and untamed as if it came out of the bushes and forest around us. We can only guess at what possibilities may be hiding for us, awaiting us in the future of....tomorrow.

Tuesday, February 19, 2008 – 6:28 AM:

daniel — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 18:45:00 GMT

TOP TEN PLACES TO STUDY…and other pieces of my mind:

1. The Reading Courts on the 4th Floor of the Bloomberg School of Public Health (our next door neighbor at JHU SON – it is very convenient). Just a great, great place to get some quality peace and quiet in a superb atmosphere with really nice desks and work lamps.

2. The 2nd floor café on the North end of the Bloomberg School of Public Health for those of us who sometimes need a lot of commotion in order to concentrate.

3. The 9th floor, Southeast corner of the Bloomberg School of Public Health which provides a place to concentrate as well as contemplate a birds-eye view of Baltimore and the inner harbor (not to mention all of the construction going on at Johns Hopkins Hospital.

Hmmm…I bet your wondering why I haven’t mentioned anywhere to study in the School of Nursing Building yet. Well, going out on a limb here I will say that the truth is…for me, personally, in consideration of my own, unique learning style, studying at the school of nursing has it’s own set of, shall we say, challenges. It is a beautiful building; really, I’m not just trying to make up for leaving them out of my top three picks of places to study. It is a wonderful place with top-notch facilities. The lecture halls are so comfy and hooked up with the latest technology, the practice labs are great, the place is always spotless and the people are simply the best. Perhaps that is why I find it so hard to study there…the great people I am always finding myself in the midst of. I can’t help spending most of my time at the SON talking to all of the excellent people who seem to be constantly circulating there. I get much more done in a place where I am a lot more anonymous. OK, and it does get a bit crowded at the JHU SON sometimes, but the word is that the school may be putting up another building in the near future. Don’t say you heard it here first. So, there are a few places at the SON building that are well worth spending time in to study.

4. One of these places is “The NIRC” (It has it’s usefulness in a pinch). I believe it stands for the Nursing Information Resource Center. It’s on the third floor and I have gotten a lot done there on many occasions. The outdoor courtyard is also a great reprieve from just being inside too damn long. Now, across town from the “East Baltimore Campus” of JHU (also known as the JHMI or Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions) we head northwest a bit, to…

5. The “Q Level” of the Milton S. Eisenhower Library on the main campus of Johns Hopkins known as “Homewood” in the place called “Charles Village”…only, don’t look for the village because as far as I can tell there isn’t one. But it is a safe and attractive part of Baltimore and the Homewood campus is certainly that traditional, classic University campus you would expect to find, with the beautiful quads and buildings, brick and cobble stone walkways and stately trees. It really is an impressive layout. Many nursing students find comfortable abodes in this neighborhood; you should check it out. As for the library, I really don’t like any other level of the library for the purpose of studying than the Q Level. You see, one morning I arrived earlier than I care to admit in order to concentrate and study. I may have been one of the only people there other than staff. The place was so quiet and I got very excited about the prospect of accomplishing much. I located a table by the large windows facing south on the main level just under Q Level and began to set up for a study session when I noticed this noise. I said to myself, “Self, I thought it was quiet here. What is going on?” I could not quite locate the source of the noise, so I gathered my things and relocated. Again, as I sat still there was this noise, I was sure of it. So I decided to investigate. I began to walk around the library listening very carefully for that sound that I was sure I was hearing. It would fade as I walked and then get louder, fade, and get louder again. I decided to stop right where I thought it was the loudest and just stand there until I could figure out what in the world was causing this awful sound that to me had now escalated to an intolerable racket! It was then that I looked straight up over my head and there it was: a small white object hanging from the ceiling with a mesh cover that faced to the floor. Out of the top of it I saw thin wires that ran down the ceiling off to some unknown destination. It was…a speaker. Not only was it a speaker, but it also dawned on me that it was not alone, there were many of these speakers and they all were placed almost directly over each study cubicle and table and what they were doing was producing white noise! They were ambient sound generators! Or perhaps more accurately they were ambient sound diffusers or distracters or mufflers, but when there was no other noise in the library, no background noise of hundreds of people trying to be quiet, these little buggers were simply deafening and driving me quite mad! So I left and have come to the conclusion that I will never be able to concentrate on any level of the Milton S. Eisenhower Library at Johns Hopkins University than the Q Level – where there are no background noise generators but only real, genuine background noises of people who are not trying to be quiet. And there is a coffee bar right there with plenty of tables to sit at, in a sea of wonderfully authentic ambient noise with which to guide my mind as I navigate these troubled waters of pharmacology and pathophysiology.

6. Carma’s Café in Charles Village (that’s not really a village). The address on Google maps says 3120 St. Paul Street, but it’s not on St. Paul Street at all, rather a few yards up E. 31st street to the west of St. Paul, but anyway. A great place to go and sit and enjoy great coffee and some of the best food in town. They also “unofficially” have wireless access…I will say no more. Two of the required tastings on their menu in my opinion, well three, are 1. The meatball rocket, 2. A pink Dalmatian (don’t worry, they do not serve alcohol…it’s just a great cookie), and 3. I think it is called a black bottom cupcake. It is most likely properly pronounced as the Baltimore Black-bottom Cupcake (I think it has its roots in Baltimore as a local specialty).

7. The BMA’s (Baltimore Museum of Art) sculpture garden, again in Charles (not the) Village. Weather permitting this is a beautiful and tranquil spot outdoors for reading (I wouldn’t try making flashcards here).

8. The Barnes & Nobles Johns Hopkins Bookstore at the corner of St. Paul and 33rd. This is actually a great place to study. I particularly like the second floor up where the textbooks are. There are several tables sitting right up against the balcony rail overlooking the store. It’s a great spot for taking the occasional people watching study break. You should know that you are setting yourself up for buying something from “that coffee shop” which is located in the store, but sometimes I suppose that sort of thing just cannot be avoided in life.

9. Bert’s. Again in that little neighborhood that in no way resembles a village (Charles Village) there is Bert’s, a sports bar located on St. Paul and they have some really great burgers. They also tend to have some really decent beer on tap. Sometimes this is just the environment I need to study in. And now that there is a smoking ban in place, I can sit in there much more comfortably and have a good burger, get some reading done, maybe work on a paper and I don’t come out smelling like someone’s day old ashtray. Sorry you smokers, I am so glad there is a smoking ban in place for I just love fresh air (although the ban has been a tough one for me in principle - and I don't even smoke). And now for #10…

10. The balcony at the Barnes & Noble Bookstore at the Power Plant on the Inner Harbor. When the weather is nice this is a simply wonderful place to sit and study.

11. So I said the top ten places to study, forgive me. I cannot publish this without making mention of perhaps the greatest place to study that I have found so far: the One World Café on University Avenue on the Homewood campus directly across the street from that famous stadium where Johns Hopkins reigns supreme in the world of Lacrosse. It is, perhaps, one of the few sports retaining that dignity elusive to so many, that purity cast off so long ago by the others who have traded in the honest pursuit of fair competition for money and drugs and multi-million dollar 30 second television advertising spots on game day. The One World Café has some of the best vegetarian and vegan fair I have ever tasted outside of my own home and they play great music (and sometimes they play it really, really loud ;-)).

Michael, Traditional Class of 2007

kstaub1 — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 18:16:00 GMT

Conclusiones
Posted August 10, 2006 3:41 PM

Hola…

Since many of you have long anticipated this most current blog of mine, I am very happy to report that life is good here in Baltimore and that although many of us are a bit sad that the summer months have flown by, it has been a good one!!!

Firstly, an official welcome to the new kids of SON who have already finished their summer courses and are now on vacation - and anticipatory welcome to our new mates starting up in just a few weeks.

This summer has proven to be a brilliant learning experience for me; I have just finished a summer internship at Johns Hopkins Bayview hospital and will remain there throughout the course of the year as a “Nurse Associate”, a fancy Tech but brilliant nonetheless. There were a hand-full of us in the same program as well as many other of our buds working in various hospital and healthcare settings throughout Baltimore and the US - not sure if anyone went abroad for the summer? I think the general consensus was that our summer jobs in these particular settings made what we had learned the previous year at SON finally make sense, at least to some degree.

Aside from work there has been some traveling, some tubing down rivers, the WORLD CUP!!!!!!!!!!!!!, an occasional mojito/margarita - sometimes one of each…

Good times. So to all of 2007 coming back to SON for round 2, and to our new friends starting year one and those returning from vacation, safe travels and we’ll see you in Sept.

~ Ciao

*****

Spring Fever
Posted March 5, 2006 4:31 PM

Friends,

Greetings once again from lovely Baltimore. It has been a good long while since my last little blurb. Actually, I think the last time I blogged was at the beginning of the semester. I have been slacking as a blogger, which was brought to my attention a couple of days ago by the lovely miss Minette, a fellow blogger who apparently has “one-upped” me with her latest blog posting. With that, here I am, blogging once again to tell you all tales of life at the SON.

It has been pretty crazy around these parts as most of us have been condemned to books and massive amounts of studying and writing papers and care plans - fun stuff! But, we are all making it through and only have one more week until freedom. A badly needed and much anticipated spring break awaits us all. This semester got up and busy from day one and has been a fairly challenging one. All in all, not too bad heading into the final stretch of the first half of the semester. I am in the process of finishing my psychiatric mental health rotation, which has been beyond interesting to say the least. After break, labor and delivery…this should prove to be a very unique experience and I am pretty excited about this next rotation because I do not really know what I am getting into. That and one of my best buddies from home just had a baby girl last week - now I get to have a glimpse of what his wife and he probably went through.

So what’s going on with all of you? How are you doing? Kind of feel funny writing things down and telling you about life here in Baltimore and SON and not having any reaction from the “audience”. Maybe that’s a good thing, not really sure. I wanted to send a hello to all of the accepted students that I recently had the pleasure of meeting. Seemed to be a very cool bunch of people, hope you enjoyed the trip. Feel free to send a hello and any questions you might have - promise I’ll be better at responding to your emails than I have been catching up on my blogs.

With that, I leave you. Must share some of this time with my pharmacology book. Be well, take care and I’ll be sending out another email sometime soon…most likely from beautiful sunny and warm Massachusetts! Ciao

*****

Winter Vacation
Posted January 17, 2006 5:47 PM

Friends, I am still on vacation and this is a very strange feeling, having been on vacation now for about 5 weeks. No complaints, it has been wonderful. Just returned this morning from a trip out to Santa Barbara, CA visiting my sister. If you have never been able to take the time to check out this part of Cali, well the entire state…better yet the entire west coast, it is certainly recommended. The roads are amazing, tucked into the cliffs overlooking a Pacific Ocean so immense - it was fabulous and all I could do was watch with envy as countless motorcyclists engulfed the 101 on every kind of bike imaginable. Great trip; I think I have a better understanding why my friends in the program from Cali are very excited to get back to Cali and indulge in the nursing world, California style.

So this is my second blog - no sure how I am doing with this blogging thing. Attempting to still figure out what it means to be a true blogger, but hey, if you all are enjoying this I can keep it coming! The countdown has commenced, 5 days + a little bit and ticking until our second semester begins. I mentioned that it has been strange to have had this enormous block of time off, and it has quickly passed as we all knew it would, but know I am staring at 5 days of freedom before it all happens, again! And not that it is a bad thing…I think many folks are excited to see how a full out clinical rotation, 16hrs a week, will be and how the last semester of their SON career will finish up. But the very badly needed break that has so quickly left us will certainly be missed.

Well then, I hope this one finds you all doing well. To the friends of SON still on break, enjoy! See you all very soon. Ciao!

*****

4 months in a flash
Posted December 31, 2005 10:05 AM

I think I had forgotten how quickly the time passes when assuming full time student status once again…4 months in a flash! Hard to believe that my first semester has already come and gone. My section finished up its last final December 16th and it was certainly time. All in all, a great semester and I think it is safe to say that we were all certainly ready and needing this break.

Back home here in Massachusetts with family and friends, thus far, a very nice and relaxing break. Had a chance to get down to NYC before the Christmas holiday and walk around the city. I also have a quick California/Baja Cali west coast trip planned with my sis before we get going Jan 23rd on semester number two.

To all who get a chance to read this, Happy Holidays and a very safe and healthy New Year! To my fellow mates @ SON, enjoy the remainder of your break. Look forward to seeing you all in 2006! Ciao.

*****

Coming Soon...
Posted December 21, 2005 12:18 PM

To tide you over until I make my first post, here’s some info about a program that I’m involved in at the school. Programa Salud works with Baltimore’s Hispanic population. Check out this article in our school magazine, Johns Hopkins Nursing, to learn more about the program: The Language of Healing

Team Haiti: Group Twa

kstaub1 — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 18:18:00 GMT

For your viewing pleasure
Posted Sunday, June 3, 2007 2:41 PM

At long last, here's a link to some of the photos from our Haiti adventure. Click the following link to see Meghan's top 277 photo picks... and remember that these are just a fraction of the photos we took!!

http://picasaweb.google.com/mebodkin/MeghanSTop277PhotosFromHAITI

*****

Day 6, Holistic Care
Posted Sunday, June 3, 2007 2:35 PM

We had an early start this morning in an attempt to stretch out our last full day in this incredible country. Uncle Marion, our host’s uncle, led us on an herbal walk. At age 81, he is quite the character and can identify the “miracle” plants that cure anything from kidney stones or prostate cancer to upset stomach or worms. Two of the students ordered and received special teas for their respective ailments – we have our fingers crossed for them!

Today, we walked much of Jeremie as we made final trips to many of the sites of our week’s work. We spent our morning huffing and puffing up the mountainous terrain to the Missionaries of Charity where we did health education to about 40 children. Jessa, the germ, wowed the children as she danced around to explain where germs live and how washing hands, covering for coughs, and brushing teeth will help keep germs away. A giant soap, giant toothbrush, and a giant hand whisked the big germ away. This health lesson was quite the spectacle, but as the Sisters do not allow photos to be taken inside the compound, our descriptions will have to suffice. Just imagine Jessa with Groucho Marx glasses and a hot pink feather boa – wouldn’t you be afraid of “germs” too?? Teaching through song reiterated the message and the children enjoyed playing decorating ‘healthy teeth’ with stickers and crayons.

Afterwards, we crossed the breezeway to the men’s side of Missionaries of Charity. These men live at the complex for hospice care. Patients include both the old and the young -- from diabetic amputees to cachectic and frail victims of unknown maladies. We spent our time massaging their sore muscles and tired bodies. Often, it felt as though we were simply rubbing their bare bones. As we made our way down the rows of metal beds, the men began to line up for their massage. Those who are well enough to sit outside came in and lay down, awaiting their turn with the nursing students. It was an act of the most basic nursing care and reminded us of the sheer power of human touch. The men showed their appreciation through their smiles, their relaxation, and the light in their eyes.

Making our way across the street to the women’s hospice care center, our patients were no less grateful. The women had heard that we were at the Missionaries of Charity compound before our arrival, and the ones who are able waited for on the porch benches. What started out as hand massages for the women turned into full body rubs, as each directed our attention to other weary body parts that needed massaging – feet, temples, backs, and even bellies. When they had finished with their massages, the women went inside for a craft activity. We had brought along colorful plastic beads, and giggles filled the room as the women made bracelets for themselves and for their bedridden fellow patients. To have something extraneous, something out of the ordinary, and something of beauty – this was extraordinary for them. Once again, the power of touch and individual attention proved amazing.

Working at the Missionaries of Charity was the perfect way to end our week in Haiti. Providing holistic, basic care was exactly what the patients – and we – needed. There’s a lot to be said for medical advances, for expensive drugs and technology. But in an area like Jeremie, where much medical care as we know it just isn’t available, a return to basic, low-technology nursing proved quite effective. The activity was intensely moving for both patient and student nurse. If the experience alone wasn’t enough, the Mother Superior at the Missionaries of Charity of Jeremie gave each of us a medal to express her gratitude. They are small medals of Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta, which have been touched to her tomb in Italy, making them very special for believers. “Blessed” is the first step to sainthood in the Catholic Church.

After our last meal at Place Charmont (a very un-Haitian dish of pizza, complete with ketchup sauce), we went out on the town with our translators, FanFan and Moondi. Even our fearless instructor Beth, who had been laid up since Thursday after a “spectacular” fall down the rained-on steps of the dining area, trekked down the mountain in the dark to “Oasis,” where we enjoyed a few last (cold!) Prestige beers and danced in the dark bamboo-curtained club.

Early the next morning, we loaded up our bags and headed back out of town. Our luggage was much easier to manage this time, as much of what we had brought was donations to leave in Haiti. Arriving at the airport, we waited for about an hour for our puddle-jumper plane to come, and then we took off from the dirt runway and were gone. The plane ride allowed us a few last spectacular views of Jeremie’s beautiful landscape -- an incredible end to an incredible week. Though our trip was short, it made quite an impression on all of us. We learned so much about public health nursing, about cultural competency, about humility and humanism. Even after returning to Baltimore and resuming our usual activities, a part of all of us remains in Jeremie.

*****

Day 5, Plan C
Posted Thursday, May 10, 2007 11:51 PM

They say the hardest part about public health nursing is getting to the patient. Case in point: today we just couldn’t get there. We had planned to cross the Grand Anse, the river that shares the name of this region, to conduct our final adolescent health fair. Mother Nature had other plans. The rain that fell throughout the night caused the river to rise too high for our snorkel truck to cross. Clad in our classic white and blue uniforms, we dispersed out across the muddy, rocky, pot-holed “roads” of Jeremie.

Team 1: Out to downtown Jeremie to the Aka-1000 mill to see how protein enriched flour is made which is distributed by The Haitian Health Foundation to combat malnutrition in women and children.

Team 2: Hopped in the back of a van with Sister Sophie, a nurse midwife from India, to provide prenatal care in a mountain village. Oddly, they crossed the Grand Anse using a bridge. They screened mothers using a high-tech portable sonogram and a tape measure.

Team 3: Who says there’s no “I” in team? Our lone ranger braved the language barrier with an “English translator” to a village heath post where local midwives convened for their monthly educational session reviewing postpartum danger signs and contents of birthing kits provided to them containing clean razors, gloves and other various supplies necessary to ensure a safe birth.

After our tasty lunch of granola bars and trail mix, we reconvened in the afternoon to observe primary and prenatal care in various settings. At the Center of Hope, directed by a German national, prenatal care was facilitated by Haitian and Cuban physicians and nurses and students assisted with counting fetal heart rates and measuring gestational age with a measuring tape. Meanwhile, across town at HHF, patients, dressed in Sunday’s best, braved the heat and their own discomfort, to seek care. Patients waited in the halls to be seen with a range of ailments such as toothaches, malaria, gastric pains, STDs, arthritis and hypertension. Health care concerns prevalent in the United States were echoed with Haitian care providers such as patient adherence, availability of medicine and concern for the price of receiving treatment.

As hard as it is to get around Haiti, everyone manages to get here. From India, Cuba, Germany, Canada and our very own charm city. Practice in global health nursing presents itself with barriers related to culture, language and training. Our time in Haiti has demonstrated that passion for providing care transcends political, economic and language obstacles. Somehow, we all understand each other sharing laughs and hiccups in translation working to empower a community.

*****

Day 4, We are lovin Haiti more...
Posted Thursday, May 10, 2007 8:23 AM

Waking up this morning at the top of the hill overlooking Jeremie the skies were dark and it was quieter than usual, even less humid, and even a little chilly? Running up the mountain, the roads, so filled with pot holes that the pot holes have pot holes that the ruts are roads unto themselves and the footpaths wind their way through the road. The roads were strangely clear today, everyone preparing for impending rain. After our breakfast among the flowers and trees at the top of the mountain we pile into the old school land rover and head down the mountain for whatever adventures Haiti brings today. We get dropped off at the Center of Hope, a maternal waiting home and treatment center for children with Kwashiorkor’s (a malnutrition disease when children don’t get enough protein). The maternal mortality statistics in Haiti are staggering (1 in 17 women) so the Center of Hope is one more way to try to help bring these statistics down. At the Center of Hope after a tour and orientation to the center we split into two groups – half of us going to the pediatric health education and vaccination area and half of us working with the amazing nurses (and one doctor) who were doing post partum and some pre natal visits. Though the nurses we were working with are “only” LPNs, they do some amazing work assessing diagnosing and educating the patients. I think all of us are struck here by the possibilities of the nursing role that we have seen. The nurses in the health education and vaccination center were equally adept in their work riling up the crowd of over 50 women and their children who show up for education according to age for nutrition and baby care. We all feel pretty confident in our abilities at administering vitamin A, oral polio and DPT to squirming babies under the tutelage of the Haitian nurses. We also had the unique experience of meeting some doctors from Cuba who are part of the Cuban government’s outreach to other countries. They are in Haiti, as they are in other countries around the world, giving medical care, aiding health institutions and training local doctors. The Cuban doctor who spoke with us was amazingly humble in her expression of her work and her desire, the goal of the entire outreach effort, to work in a culturally appropriate way that would aid Haitians to be able to meet their own health needs without outside assistance. Humility was in fact the theme of the day – after getting stuck in a phenomenal rain storm that only lasted for a bit, we went to visit Eve Rose. As we arrived at her house we tromped up the steps to be met by little children, many many little children, who kissed our hands and wished us Bon Soir. Eve Rose runs, far beyond an orphanage, a home for children, a spot of grace. She has 75 children of all ages who are clean and healthy orphans, those who no one else wanted, but Eve Rose’s heart envelopes them all and the sense of pervading calm and kindness is profound. We played with the children, we toured their home; we held them, took pictures of them and then in a surreal moment that can only happen in Haiti, only in Jeremie, the children assembled their band of discarded instruments and played. From what was discarded something beautiful emerged and in the shining faces of the children playing and the littler ones clapping, it was hard to believe that this was not a family … somehow of 75. After clapping and cheering we felt obliged to return some bit of entertainment and led the troop back down to their courtyard playground of cinders. We sang our new favorite health song (Bon Sante – Good Health – sung to the tune of Father Abraham with crazy actions … it’s a long story). Every single face broke into a smile as we danced together and sang together; taking turns one American song for one Haitian - a cultural exchange, a human exchange transcending our lack of Creole. The culminating moment was when the children sang an American hymn about lifting up the name of the Lord – the spirituality that Eve Rose professes evident in the way the children help each other little paired with big and vocalized in both Creole English to not a dry eye in the humble courtyard. Humbled we could only say thank you and after hugs and kisses and pictures and writing down the words to songs we knew to add to the impressive repertoire the kids already know. Humbled we are seeing in Haiti immense need tempered by immense kindness – from the malnourished child who offers us a seat, to the nurses who wade to meet us in the middle of the linguistic divide, to the people who open their homes and hearts to us, to the Cuban doctors who are giving free service to a people not their own, to our host who has made this her life’s work, to Eve Rose whose family numbers over 400 orphaned children finding a home in hers and grows with child she plucks from the street and each heart that is touched by her family. Humbled, every one of us would be happy to not get back on the plane on Saturday for at least few more days in Haiti to offer whatever help we might be able to offer, and yet humbled to know that it wouldn’t be enough, but that it would be accepted as if it were.

*****

Day 3, Do you miss us yet?
Posted Tuesday, May 8, 2007 9:53 PM

We have experienced more in our first six hours today than most people in America experience in a lifetime. The day began with traditional Haitian pumpkin soup, and then we took a land rover down the bumpy mountain to the Haitian Health Foundation, where we were introduced to the KOMBIT program. This specific model of intervention is the only one of its kind. However, it is not widely implemented, despite great results, due to its expense. The health workers from KOMBIT showed us an entertaining and informative skit, including a ‘pregnant’ man and hand-stitched uterus and baby, courtesy of our very own Sara Groves.

Afterwards, we got to experience downtown Jeremie for the first time. The market was a sensory roller-coaster, complete with smells of drying fish, flies swarming raw meat, and fruits of every color being sold from every available ground space. Our pictures will soon follow…

The next event was visiting the Missionaries of Charity orphanage and hospice. The children in the center are not all orphans – many actually have parents but their parents are unable to care for them. The sisters there only take in the sickest children and so the children we saw were severely malnourished and the evidence of kwashiorkor and marasmus were all around us. This was definitely one of the most heart-wrenching experiences so far. It was extremely hard not to cry in front of the children as we rocked the babies or played with the toddlers. Thankfully, we get one more opportunity to work with the children and the hospice this Friday when we come back and do our health education.

One of the last amazing sites of the day was the weekly ferry boat that transports hundreds of Haitians from Jeremie to Port-au-Prince. The boat should only really hold about 300 people to be safe, but today it was packed to the brim with about 800 people, livestock, and produce. Sometimes people will even row out as the boat is leaving and climb on as the boat is sailing away.

More to follow…Stay tuned!

- Team Haiti Twa (3 in Creole)