My name is Kaitlin Haws and I am currently enrolled in the 17-month accelerated program. I’m writing on behalf of my recent experience in Jeremie Haiti with Professor Beth Sloand. I funded my trip by winning the Provost Undergraduate Research Award to conduct a study on child mortality in rural Haiti.

Beth, Annika Hawkins, Angela Wilkins (2 NP students) and I left for Haiti on January 5 and returned January 21st, where we were in connection with Bette Gebrian the Public Health Director for the Haitian Health Foundation (HHF) in Jeremie. My experience in Haiti has been easily the most rewarding experience that I’ve had as a nursing student. Working with Beth and two graduate students provided the perfect milieu for me to increase my clinical skills and knowledge in a non-threatening environment (which was the complete antithesis of my med-surg experience).

We were there for two weeks and I was able to experience a wide variety of both adult and pediatric health care. We worked in the clinic 3 different days at HHF which provides primary care to the town of Jeremie. I observed one of the nurses, who sees patients, diagnoses and treats and I also worked with Beth seeing patients. We worked in a clinic called the "Center of Hope" where they routinely do pre-natal visits and pediatric immunizations.

At the Center of Hope, they have a maternal waiting home where identified high-risk pregnant women can come to rest during the last month of pregnancy. They also have a program for children with kwashiorkor, unfortunately there was a little boy who was admitted with late-stage kwashiorkor and it was heart-wrenching. We worked at the "Sister’s of Charity" which provides hospice care for women and men and has an active orphanage. We assisted in a.m. care for the women and helped feed the children.

We had the opportunity to travel out to the clinics located in a few different villages, where I feel like I witnessed public health at its finest. We traveled with a portable pharmacy, a team of nurses and health agents and set up shop. I, as an undergrad, weighed babies, took blood pressures, measured fundal heights, found fetal heart rates with a Doppler and assisted Beth, Annika and Angela. As a student approaching graduation in May who is completely exhausted from the rigors of an accelerated program, this trip was exactly what I needed to remind myself of why I have chosen nursing as a career.

Haiti would be the perfect community health rotation site. Not only does HHF have an incredible public health model (the most sustainable development I have seen even as a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer), but it provides exposure to a variety of different aspects of healthcare. It also was a unique opportunity to see first-hand different illnesses we never see here in the U.S.

For example: Beth treated a teenage girl with mumps and approximately 1 out of 4 patients had malaria. Haiti’s close proximity to the US is convenient with travel and is truly "Third World" and only a two hour flight from Miami. Traveling with Beth, a seasoned visitor to Haiti was extremely rewarding as was working with Sara Groves.

I am confident that my fortune to gain such amazing international experiences- such as Haiti and I’m going to India for my leadership- is unique to Hopkins. These opportunities are what sets us above the rest and is especially appealing to a Peace Corps Fellow.