Narrative Medicine Special Event in Brooklyn
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Jim Stubenrauch is a senior fellow at
From the field. International forensic nurse reporting from Kenya
Senior Fellow Nancy Cabelus, DNP, MSN, RN, is an international forensic nurse consultant currently working with Physicians for Human Rights on a program addressing sexual violence in conflict zones in central and east Africa.
Nancy Cabelus with nurse colleagues in Kisumu, Kenya
In recent weeks I returned to Kenya to continue my work with Physicians for Human Rights, Program on Sexual Violence in Conflict Zones. In Kisumu, Kenya our team held a training workshop for 30 professionals on the cross-sectoral response to addressing the needs of survivors following sexual violence. Participants not only told us how greatly they appreciated the training but how important it was for them to meet and collaborate with colleagues from within their own community. It was an unusual opportunity that nurses and doctors would be invited to sit in the same training session as police officers, lawyers and magistrates. However, all sectors must learn to work together to properly investigate cases of sexual violence. A critical outcome of the workshop was that the participants all committed to holding follow-up meetings to continue collaborating on this newly formed network with a nurse taking the lead as the group coordinator.
Following the workshop, I returned to Nairobi where I had the pleasure of meeting Yeon Yoo, a registered nurse and trauma counselor from Seoul, Korea who has been working extensively with HIV infected women through an NGO called Harvest Women Center. Ms. Yoo is the daughter of CHMP Visiting Scholar, Nahmee Choi. Months ago, I virtually introduced Yoo and Choi to my Kenyan friend and colleague, Irene Mageto who resides in Nairobi. Mrs. Mageto is a registered nurse, lecturer, and PhD student.
After Hurricane Sandy, New York Nurses Respond to the Long Recovery
Joy Jacobson is a CHMP senior fellow. Follow her on Twitter: @joyjaco
After much controversy, the U.S. Senate finally approved a $50 billion Hurricane Sandy relief package on Monday, which President Obama signed on Tuesday night. It took nearly three months for Congress to endorse the aid—a delay that many residents of New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut, especially those most severely affected, found inexcusable.
At Coney Island Hospital in mid-December, imaging equipment damaged by the storm surge. Photo: Jocelyn Augustino, FEMA
My report on how four New York City hospitals damaged in the hurricane have fared in the weeks after—and how the city’s nurses have responded—appears in the February issue of the American Journal of Nursing. Bellevue Hospital, the Veterans Affairs Medical Center, NYU’s Langone Medical Center, and Coney Island Hospital all had to evacuate patients and remained closed or only partially reopened for many weeks.
The slow recovery has affected the lives of many patients and clinicians. Some say the recovery is taking too long. Mary Fitzgerald, a nurse at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx and a member of the New York State Nurses Association, participated in December in a protest at the home of Mayor Michael Bloomberg to demand a stronger response from the city. Fitzgerald told me:
In our great city, unfortunately, there was an inadequate disaster plan, and the entire hospital infrastructure was stressed. If people don’t evacuate, then what? If a storm can knock out all of this, what do we do? The city has got to be more transparent. We’re looking for stronger alliances.
WNYC’s Fred Mogul reported on Wednesday that Bellevue hospital still plans to offer full services this month. But the needed repairs to the 22-story facility have included, according to Mogul, damage to the vast electrical and heating systems, water pumps, and even elevators, at a cost in the hundreds of millions of dollars.