A Nurse’s Perspective on Global Health by Cherie Conley.
Nursing
This past month, a whole week was set aside to acknowledge and honor the contributions of nurses to the healthcare field. Restaurants and shops gave away a variety of specials and discounts with just the flash of a work badge. On the job, nurse appreciation parties were planned, and in the newspapers articles were printed reminding us of the ever-present nursing shortage – even more of a reason to be grateful for the ones we have.
Yet despite the accolades and praise for the work that nurses do, there is quite a bit that most people don’t know about what all it is that nurses actually do. Often the only image people have of a nurse is in the hospital – even more so now with television’s smatterings of dramas set in emergency rooms and private practices. Usually, the nurses are knee-deep in ‘stat’ orders and ‘code blue’ functions. If not that, you may see them peering menacingly over low hanging glasses or snapping a chart shut and out of the view of an interested family member or friend. Those images are powerful and long lasting. Even today I can’t watch Julianna Margulies as ‘The Good Wife’ without flashing back to her days as the conflicted nurse on ’ER’.
Changing Roles
The role of the nurse, however, spans far and wide and is constantly evolving and growing – both within and beyond the walls of the hospitals. The organization Doctors without Borders is well known to many people as an intriguing and noble organization for physicians who are called to serve internationally. A quick internet search for ‘nurses without borders’ yields nothing of the sort. As a new nurse graduate some years back, and interested in international health, I was disappointed not to see a group by the same name and prestige geared towards nurses. The disappointment was short-lived, however, as a little more research and crossing paths with some seasoned nurse veterans showed me that nurses’ work in the international arena is alive and well.
First, I met a woman, Linda, who told incredible stories about her many travels with the American Red Cross, responding to disasters around the world including the 2004 East Asian tsunami. I met another nurse, Richard, who was also a social worker. Over 15 years ago he began taking a group of medical workers down to Belize every year to trek through the jungles and serve people In the most remote villages that even the Ministry of Health often was not able to service – he called the work his most fulfilling thing he had done in his career. And most recently, in the aftermath of the unforgettable earthquake in Haiti, I participated in a conference call in which hundreds of nurses organized and collaborated to send teams of volunteers to provide primary care and attempt to coordinate public health efforts aimed at preventing the outbreak of disease that can happen with mass casualties and destruction.
Nurses as Educators
There is one aspect of nursing that is an essential part of any and all professional duties. That is the role of nurse as educator. As educators, nurses are charged with sharing accurate and essential knowledge to patients, families and communities with the ultimate goal of improving health outcomes and quality of life. To do this effectively requires cultural sensitivity, an understanding of how individuals and groups learn best, as well as the barriers and motivating factors that affect their learning. While the title may sound simple, to be an effective educator requires some serious skills.
Nurse-Midwives in Guatemala
A great example of nurses not only playing a role in international health but also relying on their skills as educators is the new partnership between Impact Global Health Alliance Global and the American College of Nurse-Midwives. Nurse-midwives are nurses who have received Master’s-level training in how to care for women throughout their lives, and especially pregnant women and their babies from conception through delivery. The partnership will bring nurse-midwives to Guatemala this summer to actually train Guatemalan health professionals in best practices to follow, prevent, and respond to maternal and child health emergencies.
The curriculum is called the Home Based Life Saving Skills (HBLSS) program and it has been tailored to meet the learning needs of professionals with various literacy levels and from different cultures. The skills that the nurse-midwives bring are especially needed in the areas where Impact Global Health Alliance Global works. These are areas where maternal and child death rates are often the highest in the country, making the residents the most vulnerable of already especially vulnerable populations.
While the importance of medicines to treat illnesses, and physicians to diagnose those illnesses is undeniable, the ability to harness the power of communication and education to save and improve lives is just as remarkable. Only two nurse-midwives will travel to Guatemala this summer to conduct the HBLSS training in 89 communities, but by the end of our four-year project, tens of thousands of families will have been reached with this information. Additionally, the new training will allow Guatemalan traditional birth attendants, known as comadronas, to continue to provide care to families, but now armed with even more skills and knowledge to prevent illness and live longer.
Return to your Roots
Though the hospital nurse may be one of the most popular images of nurses today, let’s not forget one of, if not the first notable images of nurses in history – the Lady with the Lamp – Florence Nightingale. Florence Nightingale became an ardent pioneer and advocate in the field of public health in the 1850’s after the ravages of the Crimean War in England – and long before George Clooney became a love interest of Nurse Carol on ER.
In essence, as our nurse midwives travel to Guatemala this summer, they are not so much breaking barriers, as returning to their roots! Let’s cheer them on and wish them well in the wonderful, life-saving work that they will be doing.
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Cherie Conley is a current Impact Global Health Alliance Intern who is completing her Masters of International Studies at NCSU with a concentration in Public Policy and Global Health Disparities and also completing her Masters of Community and Public Health Nursing at the University of North Carolina-Charlotte.
