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Peggy Madden of Aspen Valley Hospital helps a boy in Uganda, Africa. This is one temporary clinic that Nurses With A Purpose set up on the trip in a slum in the city of Kampala.
Jennifer Campbell returned from a Nurses With A Purpose trip to Africa with some new purpose of her own.
"I feel very lucky to live in the U.S. and to be educated and to be able to make decisions for myself," she said. "Also I felt that sense of - that I need to do more with my life than I have been doing."
Campbell, who works as an ICU nurse at the Vail Valley Medical Center, said the trip motivated her to make more of a difference with her life. Maybe more volunteering or going back to school - whatever it ends up being.
"I certainly was at a point in my life when I went on this trip that I wanted to remember what it was that inspired me to become a nurse," she said. "We get caught up in documentation and charting and the legal side of things. I wanted to simply help people. It kind of brought me back to what it is I like about nursing."
Campbell stayed a week longer than the Nurses With A Purpose (NWAP) trip to travel on her own and just got back about a week ago. The two-week NWAP trip included work at a hospital, a slum in Kampala, Uganda, and also work in a village about three hours outside Kampala. The group of seven nurses, along with NWAP executive director Lynne Jammaron, next traveled to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. There they worked at another hospital and in an orphanage. The group also spoke at a nearby nursing school.
"I feel very lucky to live in the U.S. and to be educated and to be able to make decisions for myself," she said. "Also I felt that sense of - that I need to do more with my life than I have been doing."
Campbell, who works as an ICU nurse at the Vail Valley Medical Center, said the trip motivated her to make more of a difference with her life. Maybe more volunteering or going back to school - whatever it ends up being.
"I certainly was at a point in my life when I went on this trip that I wanted to remember what it was that inspired me to become a nurse," she said. "We get caught up in documentation and charting and the legal side of things. I wanted to simply help people. It kind of brought me back to what it is I like about nursing."
Campbell stayed a week longer than the Nurses With A Purpose (NWAP) trip to travel on her own and just got back about a week ago. The two-week NWAP trip included work at a hospital, a slum in Kampala, Uganda, and also work in a village about three hours outside Kampala. The group of seven nurses, along with NWAP executive director Lynne Jammaron, next traveled to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. There they worked at another hospital and in an orphanage. The group also spoke at a nearby nursing school.
Leaving the strongest impact on Campbell was the slums of Kampala. Conditions were worse then the rural village, she said, due to factors such as a higher level of pollution, drugs and prostitution. People dumped trash in a river and also used it as a water source. Many people they helped lived in villages of cardboard boxes that a "slumlord" actually charged rent for, she said.
"It was just a shock that people actually live in this kind of squalor," Campbell said. "I think overall it was just kind of that sinking feeling of, 'This is what it really is, and this is how people truly live.'
"I think there's a lot of guilt involved as far as why do we live the way we do and why do they live the way they do."
Most of the nurses' work involved diagnosing and handing out medications for various ailments and diseases. Nurses also shared education on basic health.
For example, one piece of advice was, "Try to get some soap so you can wash your hands before you touch a patient," Campbell said. But that wasn't all.
"It was just a shock that people actually live in this kind of squalor," Campbell said. "I think overall it was just kind of that sinking feeling of, 'This is what it really is, and this is how people truly live.'
"I think there's a lot of guilt involved as far as why do we live the way we do and why do they live the way they do."
Most of the nurses' work involved diagnosing and handing out medications for various ailments and diseases. Nurses also shared education on basic health.
For example, one piece of advice was, "Try to get some soap so you can wash your hands before you touch a patient," Campbell said. But that wasn't all.
"A lot of why we were there was to try to raise the morale of nursing, to encourage nurses to grow in their profession and to push doctors to include them more," she said.
Campbell said that she paid around $1,500 of her own money and money from private donations, and NWAP matched $1,500 for the cost of taking her to Africa. Jammaron said NWAP got most nurses' employers to contribute funds for their nurses to go on the trips, but Campbell said that didn't happen for her.
This was the first trip on which NWAP has taken nurses overseas. A nonprofit, NWAP hopes to deliver nursing services and health care to places around the world that need it most while expanding nurses' experiences and advocating for the profession of nursing. Jammaron said NWAP's goal is to become supported by profits from NWAP's sister company, a nurse staffing company called Nurselink Staffing. That way, NWAP wouldn't rely heavily on donations.
But NWAP hasn't gotten there yet. A trip scheduled for Mexico in January could fall through if funding isn't obtained, Jammaron said, though she appreciates the help NWAP has gotten so far.
"We're trying to do something so global," Jammaron said. "It's so nice to have the people here locally supporting us like they do, so I just want to say thank you and that we appreciate it."
Campbell said that she paid around $1,500 of her own money and money from private donations, and NWAP matched $1,500 for the cost of taking her to Africa. Jammaron said NWAP got most nurses' employers to contribute funds for their nurses to go on the trips, but Campbell said that didn't happen for her.
This was the first trip on which NWAP has taken nurses overseas. A nonprofit, NWAP hopes to deliver nursing services and health care to places around the world that need it most while expanding nurses' experiences and advocating for the profession of nursing. Jammaron said NWAP's goal is to become supported by profits from NWAP's sister company, a nurse staffing company called Nurselink Staffing. That way, NWAP wouldn't rely heavily on donations.
But NWAP hasn't gotten there yet. A trip scheduled for Mexico in January could fall through if funding isn't obtained, Jammaron said, though she appreciates the help NWAP has gotten so far.
"We're trying to do something so global," Jammaron said. "It's so nice to have the people here locally supporting us like they do, so I just want to say thank you and that we appreciate it."
Contact Pete Fowler: 945-8515, ext. 16611
pfowler@postindependent.com
Post Independent, Glenwood Springs Colorado CO
