The Future of My Medical Mission

Children in the rural Haitian village of Quicroix

I have these images in my mind. They might be more like embossed outlines or the faces of children. These children had such a light in their eyes that  their faces didn't reflect.  I love children. When children suffer my protector-healer instinct kicks-in in such a way that it seems almost primitive.

I have always had a passion for children, easing their pain, making them smile, comforting them. The eyes of a child absolutely melt me, whether they are my own or someone else's. Remarkably, this makes treating children, as a paramedic, easier. Not in the sense that I don't experience anxiety over it, but I have such compassion that I strive for absolute perfection, going above and beyond the education necessary for treating children in my profession. We have the option of having either Pediatric Advanced Life Support (PALS) certification or Pediatric Assessment for Pre-hospital Professionals (PEPP) to maintain our licensure in  my county... I have both.

I have been to pediatric trauma symposiums, seminars and continuing education courses. Now, I have the basics down. The out of hospital emergency treatment of children I feel very confident about. It is time for me to move on. My wife and I were talking about this and my current career direction. 

I've been reconsidering some of my career goals and re-evaluating whether or not I am actually taking roads that will lead me toward my ultimate goal of full-time medical ministry. I've had a lot of input from other missionaries on this as well. I've researched mission boards and organizations. I've browsed through the listings and requests from overseas missions. 

One thing that I keep on seeing is a request for nurses, particularly nurses with pediatric experience. Okay, I'm no nurse, but I could be. I've got the education and experience to make me very competitive in the field. getting into nursing school is definitely a hurdle, but after spending the last few years chasing after the Physician Assistant education it seems that I may be heading in the right direction, but just on the wrong road to get there.

Nursing education is much less expensive and it seems in much more demand internationally for mission staff. THe only problem is that, until the last couple of months, going to nursing school turned my stomach. I see the nurses in the ER's that I frequent and how overwhelmingly over-worked they are. They put even the busiest paramedic unit to shame in shear patient contact hours and workload. I really didn't want to be a nurse.

That was then. 

I have several letters of recommendation from physicians that I've worked with and know personally for PA school, but somehow, now that I'm qualified and possibly even a viable candidate for the program, something that once seemed so impossible and far away, it seems that my sites should be set on nursing, as strange as it sounds. Both school are about equal in length but nursing education suddenly seems less intimidating to me, like it would be a better fit.

My wife tells me that she thinks the ideal occupation for me, aside from missions, would be as a pediatric nurse. This was a totally unsolicited comment from her. Another friend of mine and someone whose opinion I greatly respect mentioned to me this morning that my skills, my passions, my talents and my circumstances all seem to be pointing in the same direction.

The Baptist Haiti Mission and IHM need a full-time staff nurse to work on the compound as a clinical liason. I heard about this a few days before I left Haiti last November. Ever since hearing about this position, I don't think I've gone a day without thinking about it.