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Medical/Dental Brigade Is A Mission of Love & Hope

photo by Heidi Gillespie The sign and the smile says it all! Global Brigades Medical Unites Nurses and other medical professionals in a shared goal of helping others.

photo by Heidi Gillespie Shelby Sheehan pauses a moment with one of the children she worked with during the mission.

photo by Heidi Gillespie Cassandra Smith and one of the patients prove love is universal!

photo by Heidi Gillespie Supplies had to be brought in and set up for each day of the clinics.

Tuesday March 29, 2016

By Cookie Steponaitis

Castleton State University nursing student Shelby Sheehan always knew she wanted to be a nurse and make a difference but it was not until a recent trip with NYVT Nurses Unite that Sheehan experienced first-hand how a committed group of medical professionals could impact and bring change. The group went for a week to Santa Cruz, Honduras with a goal of providing health and dental care to the community. Every morning the group would travel two hours to the community and set up stations at the clinic which included intake and data information, triage, medical, dental, GYN, education, vision and pharmacy. “To be honest, I wasn't quite sure what to expect,” reflected Nurse Sheehan. “I knew that I would be visiting a country that was not as fortunate as we were. When we got there this was somewhat true but I was also wrong at the same time. Honduras has very rural and poverty stricken areas where the houses are made out of tin roofs, adobe clay, cement blocks, or even less. However, Honduras also has beautiful cities and areas as well. I also expected to see very different health problems than we have here in the U.S. but I was wrong. A lot of the health problems we saw were Hypertension and Diabetes, along with parasites in their bodies.”
   The mission involved effort in planning and execution and actually began with fundraising back in October. Each of the professionals going for the week long clinic had to raise their own travel, lodging and food and expenses which were close to $2000.00 and in addition the group had to raise $9000.00 for the supplies to be used by the doctors and dentists. The group was able to bring it together and go as the result of fundraising efforts that involved volunteering and working for Vermont Teddy Bear multiple times, hosting a Penny Fair, an ugly sweater party and medication drives at various Walmart’s. For readers assuming these were normal procedure days and a controlled number of patients fitting neatly into time slots, think again. In the four days of full clinic work the traveling medical professionals saw and treated 1182 people. Long hours were a part of it and the whole experience cemented for Sheehan and others how critical it is for people to have access to health services and medical treatment.
Plans are already in the works for next year. Sheehan reports that this is the sixth year of this project and next year plans to expand the time and services to include also building Eco stoves for them to be able to cook in their homes. “The media portrays Honduras as an extremely dangerous place but this isn't the case at all. Not once did my peers and I feel scared or intimidated while we were in Honduras. The community was so appreciative of what we were doing. I think this would surprise the readers to know because the media portrays Honduras as only being a very violent country,” shared CU Nursing students Cassandra Smith and Hayley Savage.
“This whole experience was new learning for me,” concluded Sheehan. “This was my first mission trip as an RN. I learned so much about Honduras and their communities. The way these people accommodate their lives is incredible. Some people don't have vehicles so they use horses and donkeys to help them with work and home life. People walked hours and hours to come to our health clinic. My passion for nursing was definitely reinforced during this trip. This trip totally validated why I became a nurse. The smiles on people's faces when they walked through those gates it indescribable.” The Valley Voice salutes and celebrates all of the 32 professionals who this year  made the trek and the effort to help change people’s lives for the better and show again the spirit of compassion, community and involvement that makes this state such a wonderful place to be.

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