Nursing Students in the Field

A hallmark of the Buntain School of Nursing at Northwest is a capstone, cross-cultural course taken in the final semester of the senior year. The student is required to participate in a month-long nursing and ministry immersion experience that requires effectiveness in a cultural setting different than one’s own.

2004’s sites included Bethel, Alaska; Calcutta, India; Mt. Darwin, Zimbabwe; and Taipei, Taiwan.

Bethel, Alaska

Kathy Ross, April Morgenroth, Jodi Hayes, and Kimber Powell spent their month serving in a hospital in Bethel, Alaska, and in clinics in surrounding towns and villages.

Student E-mails

On Monday, I flew out to Akiak with a public health nurse. Akiak is a small village of about 500 upriver from Bethel. The public health nurses usually visit the villages every six months to do immunizations, well child exams, and epidemiology. (A few villages have had major problems with Tuberculosis.)

When we arrived in Akiak, a man picked us up from the airport and took us to the clinic. Half an hour after we arrived we started doing immunizations on all the children. We did immunizations all day.

That evening, Petra (the public health nurse) and I took a walk around the village. I saw filleted fish hanging on a wire to dry, fish traps, beaver traps, dwarfed birch trees covered in snow, barking sled dogs, people dressed in furs, and we even watched the sunset on the very frozen Kuskokwim River.

– April Morgenroth

After I got home on Thursday, I got a page from the Paramedic team that they were flying to a village on the Bering Sea about 120 miles away. They picked me up and took me to the airport. I got to fly copilot, so that was really fun.

The scenery here is beautiful.

As we were flying you could see villages from the air. Most of the populations of the villages are under 1000, so they are very small. They are all scattered along the Kuskokwim and Yukon Rivers. I saw the beautiful mountain range from the air.

When we landed it was getting dark. The runway in the village called Hooper Bay was covered in ice. So the pilot put his brakes on and we slid for a while. That is an experience I’ll never forget.

We got out of the plane and the Eskimos were there with their snow machines and they took us about five miles to the village to pick up a 17-year-old with heart problems.

– Kathy Ross

Calcutta, India

Nine nursing students traveled to Calcutta, India: Jenny Frazier, Tatyana Khochay, Michelle Schone-man, Melody Botterbusch, Jesse Hinds, Cindi Smith, Megan Ulrey, Jennifer Pike, and Shara Johnson.

The students observed and worked in the Mission of Mercy Hospital in Calcutta for half of their month, then visited health centers in other parts of the country to get an idea of health care in India.

Student E-mail

What a full day! We went to two of the homes of the destitute and dying that Mother Teresa founded.

God taught me a great lesson: the lesson of a smile. You see, we often think that a smile is a smile. But the Holy Spirit spoke so strongly to me that I can look at these people and give them a smile that portrays pity, or I can give them a smile of love that acknowledges their value and importance and that I care.

Upon leaving one of the houses, I stopped. I was in such a hurry I hadn’t even looked these people in the face. I saw a man who was clearly dying and was literally skin and bones. I put my hands together and bowed, acknowledging him and gave him a love smile. I’m not kidding, that man lit up and smiled the biggest smile.

The latter part of the day we met Bonnie Long, Mark and Huldah Buntain’s daughter, at the original church. She was full of such amazing stories and history. You couldn’t help but have your faith increased!

– Megan Ulrey

Mt. Darwin, Zimbabwe

Kelsey Schoonover, Janay Rosier, and Janet Salmon traveled to Mt. Darwin, Zimbabwe, where they served at the Karanda Mission Hospital with Brenda Strysko, an Out of Africa missionary and Northwest faculty member.

Faculty/Missionary E-mails

We are having a wonderful time and everyone loves Africa! We attended a church service on Sunday morning. The students and I sang two songs and the students did the Noah story with puppets for the children. The children are so sweet, and the adults are so friendly. The spirit of the Lord was with us here in Africa.

– Esther Crook, Professor

You should be very proud of Kelsey, Janay, and Janet. Their attitude and behavior were exemplary. The staff and African people loved them. If they weren’t in clinical, they were ministering.

We did take a couple days for R&R and sightseeing, but I think, all in all, they will probably sleep for a week once they are home!

They had some incredible clinical experiences, from delivering babies to dealing with death and dying related to AIDS. They also were able to go into the various communities for immunizations and participate in village life.

They rotated through maternity, pediatrics, female med/surg, out-patient/ER, OR and community. They also formed quite a trio singing, “Lord of All Creation.”

The Africans loved it and asked them to sing it wherever they went. It almost became their theme song.

– Brenda Strysko, Missionary

Taipei, Taiwan

Seven Northwest students traveled to Taipei, Taiwan: Holly Krempl, Jessica Hires, Maria Doerter, Lori Sexton, Kristin Gilbert, Jurusha Emerson, and Amanda Brown.

Student E-mail

On Friday, Lori and I got to watch a HEART TRANSPLANT, which was completely unbelievable. Then, to top it off, today five of us got to watch a triple-bypass surgery.

The doctor informed us that this is a much more difficult surgery than the transplant. He said that it’s like a car; it’s easier to get a new engine than replace the old one!

We keep finding that the people here have incredible generosity and a welcoming spirit.

My eating accomplishments: ostrich meat, bamboo soup, a cooked fern with raw egg. We’ve seen many restaurants that serve snake and turtle, and have these animals strung up in front of the restaurant as they gut them. McDonald’s, Subway and KFC have been lifesavers here, along with the many bakeries.

One day we were able to visit ORTV [Overseas Radio & Television Inc.] (a main Christian ministry organization to Asia), and have lunch with some missionaries. It was encouraging to hear them talk about how ministry here has to be relational due to their culture.

We’ve been talking to quite a few people about Jesus, but I have had to realize that we might just be the “seed planters” right now, as many people are meeting Christians for the first time, and we are able to show them God’s love.

- Kristin Gilbert