FEATURES

In Pursuit of Nursing’s Preferred Future

One patient at a time

by Kristene C. Diggins

As I walk into the understaffed emergency room, the smells and sounds surround me, and I fight a wave of nausea. No matter how many years I work as a nurse in this city in the Amazon jungle, I never get used to the ER.

Glancing around the small and crowded room, I see people lying on the floor, waiting for care. A man standing in a corner waits patiently for an X-ray of an obviously broken arm.

After some deliberation, I find the ER physician, the only one on duty for this 120-bed hospital, and tell him about the patient I brought into the hospital with severe dehydration from malaria. Because of the noise in the room, we are unable to hear each other well. After pointing and signaling, the physician directs me to another ward of the hospital. As I push my patient slowly down the hall, walking in a daze, I notice people lying on the floor under hospital beds and burn patients with wounds exposed to the open air.

Finally, in the infectious disease area, I reluctantly leave my patient to be admitted. I know she most likely needs an IV anti-malarial drug. This war zone, otherwise known as a hospital, is the only place that offers this treatment. Leaving her in the care of one of the nurses, I turn to walk back to the battlefield of the ER.

On days like this, when I am faced with such human pain and suffering, I often think back to my nursing school days in the United States. I remember the complaints that the medical personnel used to make about health insurance companies and reimbursement problems. Now, working amidst the daily harsh realities of developing-country medicine, I recognize how trivial those insurance issues appear when compared to a system that cannot even provide enough beds for patients.

While the challenges of working in an environment such as this are oftentimes overwhelming, I know that I am making a difference.
Such dire need for medical personnel, supplies and resources gives me the drive to do my best to see the picture changed for this community. My hope is that, by offering help to outstretched hands, I can be a part of changing this reality, one person at a time. This hope keeps me pressing on, facing the impossible with faith for a better tomorrow. RNL

Kristene C. Diggins, RN, BSN, lives and works in Brazil as a missionary nurse, where her duties include dispensing medications, suturing, ordering diagnostic tests and extracting teeth. She is currently finishing her master’s degree/FNP through Duquesne University’s online degree program. Diggins enjoys writing about her experiences working in a rural-setting health program and has compiled an inspirational book with similar stories of her work in Brazil, titled Reflections on the Journey, available at major online book outlets. In the United States, her home is in Pittsburgh, Pa.