Saturday, March 14, 2009

 

Great 100 Nurse Award for DFW


Name: Valerie King
Title/Position: School Nurse
Places of work: RISD-North Junior High and DCCCD-Richland College
# years as a nurse: 23 years
Degree held and field of specialty: BSN, RN
School Nursing, Medical Missionary
Why Nursing? Nursing is full of surprises. I love research, travel, and foreign language. Nursing, as a career, has allowed me to experience all of this. I try to be culturally sensitive in helping meet the needs of my students who come from many different places.
Being named a Great 100 Nurse is a dream come true. Some of the best nurses I know have received this award, so I am honored to be chosen to stand beside them.
I have had many memorable experiences in my nursing career; however, I feel most rewarded using all my training to make a small difference for others as a Medical Missionary. I travel each summer with a Missionary team from the Church of the Incarnation to Honduras to serve. In learning how to work as a nurse in a third world country, I am able to come back with renewed strength, hope, and ideas for how to be a better nurse in my own community.
It is interesting, but Missionary work allows for a connection that is hard to find in other ways. Through the eyes of others, I have grown spiritually. In many cases, when a person is sick, that is all that can be offered- a few words of encouragement or a listening ear. Dr Courtney Cowart wrote An American Awakening: from Ground Zero to Katrina the People We are Free to Be. She spoke recently about her experiences in both the 9/11 crisis and Katrina. She mentioned that she came away from that with the mantra “only people matter.” I also believe that people matter and it is up to each one of us to try to make a difference even if it is just one person at a time.
I remember working in Honduras, I am always impressed how many of the villagers walk hours to seek medical attention and visit our clinic. We offer some medications, but are limited with respect to treating chronic illness such as high blood pressure or diabetes. Although we screen for these things, there would be no way to continue the prescribed medications, so we can only discuss diet and exercise as ways to prevent complications. The nutritious foods are not always available either, so I find myself saying many times, “vaya con Dios” or “go with God. “ This would seem all too inadequate to say in our country, but the people there seem to be lifted up by these words. In these hard economic times, I wonder if many here will now be seeking to live a more caring and compassionate lifestyle. Our own community may suffer due to the inability to afford health insurance, medication, or treatment options. These are real concerns for the medical community as well, but I still hold onto the lessons learned as a Medical Missionary. We pray that God will provide and while this means sometimes waiting longer than we would like, at least we can reach out to one another with a word of encouragement. Sometimes that is the best medicine of all.

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