STUDENTS HELP KATRINA VICTIMS

It was the experience of a lifetime for 13 nursing students and two nursing faculty. They left in early September to help Hurricane Katrina victims for 10 days in Alexandria, La. “We worked like a well-oiled machine,” said Colleen Rose, one of the accompanying faculty. The students stepped in and began working with evacuees, caregivers, social organizations, and government agencies. “It was a 100 percent valuable experience” to our students, she said. The senior students and instructors left Tuesday, September 6, from campus for the 800-mile drive to the Louisiana State University campus at Alexandria to help establish a field hospital. The assignment came from the Louisiana Board of Health and they worked with the American Red Cross.

The students are all in their final semester of school and previously have been assigned to clinical settings, such as hospitals. LuAnn Woodrick, one of the nursing instructors accompanying the students, said the students already function as nurses (with supervision) and this was a perfect way to get experience.

Later in the week they moved to a second shelter at the former England Air Force Base in Alexandria . At the two locations, they worked with chronically ill patients who needed special attention and appropriate placement. There was a lot of listening to stories, monitoring their conditions, and transporting them, Rose said. “It was a lifetime of lessons.” Rose estimated that the shelters housed several hundred evacuees.

The students received numerous donations for the trip, including a bus and two drivers from Royal Excursions and a recreational vehicle from Gulf Stream Coach, Inc. “We received donations from individuals, from departments, families, businesses. Memorial Hospital and St. Joseph Regional Medical Center donated the preventative vaccines for the students. We greatly appreciated the help. We received total support from the School of Nursing and IU South Bend,” Woodrick said. Achievement Forum, 1st Source Bank, Ron’s McKinley Marathon, and Teachers Credit Union made contributions for the trip.

A second group of students is expected to head to the gulf region later in the fall. Rose said they will be working with the Emergency Operations Center to find a location for the student nurses.