What I do...

Recently I have had many high school and college students ask me about what exactly I do, so I decided to post a brief summary of my nursing duties in the Philippines. Some questions have been: "what life is like for you as a nurse on the mission field?, what kinds of duties do you perform each day? How many kids do you see? In what ways did God direct you to this mission? What are the most common things you deal with on a day to day basis?"

"My nurse to patient ratio is about 1: i have no idea"

Nursing duties start immediately with our kids. These include general health assessments, nursing diagnoses, blood testing, vaccinations, medication administration, caring for the ill, completing health records, primary prevention, and secondary treatment of health problems. Basically that equals a live in “school nurse”. Day to day that means asthma, fevers, mumps, lice, allergic reactions, countless cuts and scrapes, broken bones, nutrition plans, education, dental visits, purchasing of supplies, and doctors visits when necessary. After these immediate duties I will take on the more complex cases, one example being Hepatitis B. We happen to have 16 people with Hepa B, in which cases I keep up with their routine monitoring, medications, physical health, education, and refer them for psychological care when needed. This is more like case management/nurse educator. For special cases such as deformities or cancer I take on the role of patient advocate as well as guardian as I make a treatment plan and find the right doctors. This is where socializing skills come in to make connections and friends within the medical community in the Philippines. I journey with each special needs patient through hospital stays to home treatments providing home care and bedside nursing. I am sometimes a psych nurse as I deal closely with kids with psychological issues because they are sensitive to medication dosages and early recognition of signs and symptoms of relapse or break down. In between this I get to plan fun things such as a campus nutrition day, CPR course, or mini health fair. I LOVE community health nursing, within our community CH helps our neighbors or those in need, this can be done through emotional support, hospital visitations, home visits, financial aid for procedures or medications, or follow up. It is surprising how many people are not educated on their illness and how many neglect to see a doctor when they should. I encourage them to get treatment, and we help where we can. Many times, merely cleaning and changing a dressing on a wound can save a life or a limb, or little things like providing nutritious food can aid in the recovery of the ill. And lastly comes the all important medical liaison part of my job, where I communicate our needs, situations, and information, which is only possible by accurately researching the needs in the Philippines among our kids, community, and street kids, as well as keeping up in the new medical research related to those needs.

When I return to the Philippines, (hopefully next month) I will be looking into outreach in a few new ways. We are thankful for the assistance of FAME, who provide us with supplies, which enables us to bring in more people for help and someday soon hold a medical mission in our campus. We are also planning on a group of American doctors to come out next summer and help in a local hospital. I will also get the CH kids involved in some health care education outreach with a local tribal group to teach them about cleanliness, hygiene, and birth control. And, CH will soon be able to help facilitate surgeries to children with cleft lip & cleft palate, who would otherwise have no means to get to the free surgeon or fill out the paperwork needed for the surgery.

So, that’s basically the gist of my day to day nursing duties. As you can see, it spans the spectrum of the many areas of nursing. But, many ask what it’s like to be a missionary nurse, because being a missionary nurse is more than doing nursing in another country, otherwise we could just forget the missions part. For me, I am lucky because I work with a mission who is taking street kids and bringing them in, to form them into productive, educated, Christian disciples. So, I get to participate in and add to the many discipleship activities that go on at CH. And, I have the opportunity at things such as leading Bible studies, being active on committees for different areas of CH, being part of the team to lead and mentor the kids, and even allows me to preach when I feel called!

I hope this helps with any question you may have. I tried to make it inclusive, without being exhausting! Of course, every place, every mission, and every person will be so completely different.