Expect the unexpected

In August and December 2011, undergraduate and graduate College of Nursing students traveled to Uganda with the Palmetto Medical Initiative (PMI) to provide healthcare to those in need. Those students included Accelerated BSN students Lisa Carraher, Sarah Didow, Kristen Elmore, Margaret (Sosnowski) Lawrence, Lindsey Palmer, Anne Powell, Jenelle Quenneville, Thomas Rudisill, Margaret Skeele, and Jessee Wagner. Graduate students included DNP students Ashleigh Benda, Elizabeth Devereaux, Hannah French, J’Vonne Hunter, and MSN student Reames Rinehart. Sarah Didow shares her experience below:

It’s easy to get lost in the modern conveniences and comforts of the life that most of us enjoy today. When I first heard about the opportunity to travel to and volunteer in Uganda, I knew immediately it was exactly the experience that I had been looking for that would allow me to submerge myself in a different culture and provide some personal direction and insight. What I found was so much more. I discovered firsthand what it truly meant to work as an inter-professional team and the rewards and accomplishments that can result when doing so. I learned the true meaning of human compassion and community and renewed my appreciation of and respect for the human body.

My advice to others interested in going on this trip is to expect the unexpected. This trip is likely to make you both laugh and cry. You will work hard and long on both emotional and physical levels, but at the end of the day, you will be able to go to bed with a sense of purpose and fulfillment, unlike anything you have felt before. It is the most challenging and rewarding experience that will stay with you forever. Expect to be changed, and open your mind and heart to the amazing culture that is Uganda. And in the perfect irony that is life, just know that the service and love that you provide to the Ugandans will only be a fraction of what you will receive in return.

- Sarah Didow, Accelerated BSN Student