InteRNational

Bermuda Triangle: Rock Fever, Hospital Refurb and Nursing Opportunity

2009-11-12T20:38:00Z

Dorothy had a rough passage, on the winds of a ferocious tornado, to get to her Technicolor land of Oz. I visited a destination similarly colorful last week -- coral-blushed Bermuda. My voyage was a little easier -- Royal Caribbean Line's Grandeur of the Seas carried me safely through the Bermuda Triangle. On the other side of that famed geometric? The island author Mark Twain said he preferred to heaven itself. So we're taking a (temporary) detour from a planned blog on a British nurse (we'll meet...(read more)

Holland America nurse explains the scope of clinical practice at sea

2009-10-29T13:55:00Z

Nursing takes on new "heights" for those who choose to practice the profession at sea. Imagine climbing into a basket lowered from a helicopter hovering over a ship in mid-ocean. Up and away, and you're in the copter. The basket is lowered again, this time to retrieve a sick passenger, now your patient, in dire need of a ship-to-air evacuation. The scenario is not all that unusual, if you are a nurse at sea, said Laura Vlaadingerbroek, MSN, RN, chief medical officer aboard Holland America Line's...(read more)

Laura the Holland America Cruise Nurse Ties the (Nautical Marital) Knot

2009-10-14T21:14:00Z

Last time we saw Laura Vlaadingerbroek, MSN, RN, she was serving as chief medical officer aboard Holland America Lines' luxurious ms Zaandam . All the while she was living -- and loving --the good life, while traveling to exotic ports-of-call. Then she found something else to capture her attention: a Dutch officer named Bob Vlaadingerbroek. It had to be true love, because Laura took that tongue-twisting name for her own! Togetherness on the Ocean "I met my husband after about a year working at sea,"...(read more)

Nurse at Sea: How One RN Found Career and Love on Holland America Cruise Ship

2009-10-02T13:28:00Z

It started out as a career shift, but ended up as The Love Boat for Laura Vlaardingerbroek, MSN, RN, lead medical officer aboard the ms Zaandam. From that mouthful of a last name you may have guessed: This American RN from Wisconsin married a Dutch officer she met aboard a luxurious ocean liner under the Holland America Line (HAL) flag. She has since adopted the sea as home and workplace. (Cue violins and soft music.....) Who'd Have ‘Thunk' It? It really was a change of pace this former Level 1 trauma...(read more)

Joe the Nurse Makes East Coast Tour

2009-10-01T14:12:00Z

If you live on the East coast and would like to meet Joe Niemczura, MS, RN, known affectionately on this blog as "Joe the Nurse," the time is almost at hand. This affable nursing instructor at the University of Hawaii - Manoa/Nepal nursing instructor/author will greet the public, present a slide show on his Nepal adventures, display various props and offer readings from his book , "The Hospital at the End of the World," during a brief book tour. The following dates have been confirmed: Oct. 18, 2:30-3:30...(read more)

What Joe the Nurse Saw in Nepal

2009-09-18T16:14:00Z

"I spent 15 years of my career doing critical care," said Joe Niemczura, MSN, RN. "Sure, I can run hemodynamic monitoring ... But, if you have a high-tech background in nursing, just throw that out the window. In Nepal, they don't have hemodynamic monitoring, they don't have PIC lines. They don't do TPM. They're new at giving insulin because they have trouble with refrigeration. The amount of technology an American hospital has is roughly the same amount they don't have in Nepal. Amazing." A Magar...(read more)

'Shameless Plug' for RNs Who Deserve Your Attention

2009-09-16T13:09:00Z

This is not the next "official" installment of this globetrotting blog. Next up in just a few days, as promised, will be more of the adventures of Joe "the Snake Man" Niemczura, MS, RN, in Nepal. Instead, this is just a shameless plug for a story that I had the pleasure of writing about RNs from Flying Nurses International (LLC) who accompany patients on commercial flights around the world. I've never met a nicer, more engaging group of nurses, with stories of adventures -- and misadventures -- that...(read more)

How Joe the Nurse Became the Snake Man of Nepal

2009-09-03T22:27:00Z

On his first nursing mission to Nepal in 2007, Joe Niemczura, MS, RN, wondered how he would make his mark on the indigenous people. "I wasn't there to do the nursing, I was there to teach the locals what they need to do," he explains. But as he arrived at the host hospital in the town of Tansen, he had no idea how he would build relationships and establish adequate credibility to be able to reach that goal. Hmm. Would becoming an "international snakebite expert" do the trick? You bet. Joe Niemczura,...(read more)

Nurse Travels From Paradise to ‘End of the World'

2009-08-21T14:07:00Z

Ah, Waikiki. It is the stuff dreams are made of. Pacific surf pounding down on sandy shores, magestic volcanic mountains - blanketed in tropical greens - jutting up toward the heavens. But Joe Niemczura, MSN, RN, was dreaming of another destination when we first chatted by phone - he gazing out to nearby Diamond Head, sipping some Kona java - while I was in sensory overload just listening to him describe the view. "It's everyone's fantasy paradise," said Niemczura as NPR radio played in the background....(read more)

How do YOU say nurse?

2009-08-06T19:48:00Z

Foreign languages are a way of traveling without leaving home. There are subtleties in language that can only be understood within the context of culture, words that cannot be precisely translated. It's a journey to some undiscovered syllabic territory. Like spoken music, language pulses with a characteristic rhythm and cadence that somehow belies the people who speak it. And because a language is kinetic - always evolving to embrace the needs of its speakers - it is a living art form. (Let's face...(read more)

Miracles Happen! Haiti Graduates First BSN-Prepared Nursing Class

2009-07-21T16:36:00Z

"Some people thought this would be a dinky little school," laughs Ruth Barnard, PhD, RN, former University of Michigan professor who, upon "retirement," accepted the challenge of helping to establish a BSN-granting nursing school on the island of Haiti. Working through the non-profit Haiti Nursing Foundation , that's exactly what she and others dedicated to turning a dream into a reality did. Today, Faculte des Science Infirmieres de l'Universite Episcopale d'Haiti (FSIL) in Leogane stands as a testament...(read more)

Nursing a Dream: RN Takes Can-Do Attitude to Haiti

2009-07-01T21:27:00Z

Ruth Barnard, PhD, RN, was about as far away from Haiti as a person could get in her cold, blustery hometown of Ann Arbor, Michigan. Newly retired from her professorship at the University of Michigan School of Nursing in 2000, she was ripe for a new challenge. But she didn't choose it -- it chose her . Barnard explains, "The senior pastor at First Presbyterian Church of Ann Arbor asked me if a school of nursing could be built in Haiti. I said, ‘Sure.' He asked a question, I answered it. That simple....(read more)

One Nurse Answers Haiti's Desperate Call

2009-06-26T14:25:00Z

Mwen se infimye ou (" I am your nurse," Haitian Creole) Canadian Kyra Abbott, BScN, RN, grew up in the small town of Perth, Ontario, and now makes her home in the city of Ottawa. And while this Magna CumLaude graduate of the University of Ottawa could have opted for any number of relatively comfortable nursing opportunities, she chose to spend more than 4 years living and working in Haiti. Kyra Abbott, BSN, RN, with coworkers at Saint Damien Pediatric Hospital, Port-au-Prince, Haiti. That's where...(read more)

We Begin Our Journey to Haiti: How the ‘Pearl of the Antilles' Lost its Luster

2009-06-11T16:03:00Z

I first sailed into Haiti on a little Brit ocean liner. It was nothing like the ones you see today... no water slides, casinos, spas or rock climbing walls. Just 500 passengers, a British-accented crew and an environment so innocent that the rooms had no locks or keys. Risky by today's standards, but carefree by yesterday's. In my mind it was a floating slice of heaven. It stood in stark contrast to the island reality that I first glimpsed through a fogged porthole. I remember making my way to the...(read more)

I Want to Do More Traveling

2009-06-01T13:44:00Z

Have you ever caught yourself saying, "I want to do more traveling"? I say it all the time. But recently, when I was researching conditions on the once-idyllic "Pearl of the Antilles," I realized that maybe what I actually mean is: "I want to do more vacationing." Travel isn't always piña coladas and clear blue waters. It isn't always smooth sailing. The aforementioned "pearl" is Haiti, western third of the island of Hispaniola, connected by land to a distinctly different Dominican Republic. I went...(read more)