Prizes in Cereal Boxes

On Wednesday, November 28th 2007 I finished my very last NEST class and earned my graduate certificate as Nurse Educator. That afternoon I made my last curriculum presentation using nothing but cereal boxes, rubber bands, and stuffed crust pizza. Now that I think about it, it's kinda funny; I really did get my teaching certificate out of a cereal box!
After that class the teacher presented us with cupcakes that had little flags sticking out of the top of them that said "Congratulations Nurse Educator." It was actually kind of endearing. That day I walked into University of Washington as a nurse and walked out as a nurse educator. As I was hiking across campus that dark raining afternoon, I couldn't help but think of how oddly anticlimactic that actually was... It's not really a bad thing, or even a big thing, it's just a thing.
I drove off campus and treated myself to a sandwich. After that I went to a Bible study,it was the first time I had gone to a Bible study since I started graduate school and I couldn't have thought of a better way to celebrate.
But don't worry folks, this isn't the end. That was only the certificate I finished, I still have to defend my thesis before I get the degree!

Stuffed Crust Pizza, Cereal Boxes and Rubberbands Oh My!

Question: What can you make out of cereal boxes, stuffed crust pizza and rubber bands?
Answer: A very "innovative" lesson on coronary artery disease.
Yesterday I had to teach a lesson on coronary artery disease in a post clinical conference. The problem was that I would be teaching the class in a room that had only a white board. In a world where everyone expects a PowerPoint that can be a very challenging task indeed.
So... a couple of hours on Monday night and a few bowls of cereal later, I found myself wiring a giant cardboard sternum. After adding a clavicle, a humorous, a scapula, and a couple of rubber bands; I had a model with which to demonstrate the importance of sternal precautions. Add to that a stuffed crust pizza as an illustration of arterial plaque and a story about a beer bellied, bare chested football fan and you've got yourself a lesson.

My Office Runneth Over

My office has been taken over by several hundred pounds of donated medical supplies!
Most of these supplies have come to be by private donors via my mom who just so happens to be the receptionist at World Vision. She gets Several calls a week from individuals who want to donate left over medical supplies to charity. World Vision is unable to accept these donations as they are not bulk so mom sends them to me.
Sadly, most of these people are families who have had a loved one with a terminal illness who has just recently passed away. It's important for these folks to find a way to help others through the death of thier loved one as it is a part of the healing process and it honors the memory thier family member. Just a few days ago a women dropped off several large boxes of medical supplies that were left over from her daughter. She also wrote me a beautiful letter with a picture of her daughter. That night I wrote an email to my friend Julie in Rwanda regarding the supplies. I wasn't too sure what she could use there at Kibogora but praise the Lord, it turns out I had just recieved some supplies that are apparently very needed and extremely hard to get in Rwanda! What a joy it was to be able to write a letter to a greiving mother to tell her where these supplies are going and how they are helping others! Last year I had a similair such situation with a family who had lost a loved one. It turns out that we were able to take nearly all of those supplies with us to Mexico City to donate to the clinic that we worked in. I have so many amazing stories about those supplies and we used them.
Sometimes it's a little ackward for me to meet these people, pick up supplies, or talk with them over the phone but I'm begining to realize that in a way it a true ministry.

Rwanda or Bust!

I've been working on my thesis/scholarly project for a couple of months now. My original plan was to create a curriculum for an advanced medical surgical nursing class which I would then teach during spring semester. The proposal for the class had gone through the office of the Provost, gotten approved and had been added to the course catalog. I had written a syllabus, a course outline, and a couple lesson plans when situations beyond my control swallowed up my project. Despite heroic efforts for its resuscitation, I was unable to revive it. I was three days from a deadline and was without a project proposal and no time to get over the nearly disabling disappointment of loosing my previous project. This had the potential to be a major setback pushing my graduation date further away.
To make a long story short (which I'm beginning to think I'm incapable of doing) an amazing opportunity came up for a project in Rwanda. Last year a former teacher had introduced me a young missionary nurse bound for Rwanda. Julie was about to leave the US for Rwanda where she would work as nurse educator in a large mission hospital there. The two of us had been emailing back and forth since last February.
The hospital in Rwanda has just recently opened an emergency room. Since this hospital has never before had an ER the nurses have had little exposure to what we would call ER nursing.
I was invited to develop a training program that helps prepare nurses to work in the ER. The only easy part about this project is getting excited about it, the rest of it is going to be quite the challenge. First of all I had to present this idea to my thesis advisor to get it approved. I am perfectly aware that the whole idea seems absolutely crazy so I knew that getting it approved would be no easy task.
We did it! On November 3rd at 0400 am my project was given the go ahead. It was rather amazing because I was at work and able to be on my email, Rwanda is 9 hours ahead of us, and my advisor was in Japan at the time which is 16 hours ahead (I think). So... with 15 emails, lots of prayer and three hours my project was approved on the very day of it's first deadline. I now had 20 hours left for a literature review and more formal proposal.
During those three hours of trying to get my project passed my advisor asked "what do you know about emergency medicine in resource constrained areas of the world?" When I told her about some of my rather random sounding experiences she emailed me back with: OK, you've convinced me that you have the experience to do this. Both you and I know that there is no "strange way" that all of this is unfolding. If you feel like God is leading you this way, go for it!" So here I am, going for it. I'll keep you all posted as the details develop.