National Nurses United

INTERNATIONAL W hen the community clinic in High Rock, Grand Bahama Island, was reduced to rubble by Hurricane Dorian, volun- teers erected a new, makeshift clinic nearby. Survivors dropped by to receive wound care, line up for tetanus shots, replace lifesaving medications—and sometimes just to talk. "Having someone listen to you is just as important as first aid," said Washington, D.C. registered nurse Christine Grant, who worked at the High Rock clinic during a Bahamas mission with National Nurses United's disaster relief project, the Registered Nurse Response Network (RNRN). Grant and her fellow volun- teers heard harrowing survival stories. Two sisters clung to a tree, with their cousin's 6-month-old baby sandwiched between them, for 17 hours, as sharks swam below. An 87-year-old woman floated in that shark-and-debris-filled water for two days and somehow survived. Local Bahamian health care workers grieved, recalling how a local woman ignored their warning to evac- uate, and died along with her two children. "Everyone smiles when they see us, but they all have a story from the storm, and the emotional and psychological challenges run deep," said RNRN volunteer Mary-Jane Perry, of Sacramento, Calif., recounting the story of a patient who saw the casket of her child, unearthed from a nearby cemetery by the wind, left hanging open. RNRN nurses deployed to Florida after Category 5 Dorian hit the Bahamas on Sept. 1, with winds up to 185 mph. They then immediately diverted to the Bahamas, in ongoing rotations in conjunction with Inter- national Medical Corps. The official death toll as of early October was 56, but nurses say that number could be much higher, given that more than 600 are still missing. "When we flew over the Abaco Islands, it looked like a bomb went off. There were just trunks of the trees, not any green left, homes were completely smashed, and cars were over- turned," said volunteer Christina Schonbrun, a registered nurse from San Francisco, Calif. Nurses mainly worked out of clinics on the island of Grand Bahama, in the High Rock, Pelican Point, and McLeans commu- nities. They also went door to door as part of medical teams, delivering food and water, helping homebound patients, and being of service in any way they could. Grant and her colleagues even spent a day moving boxes of patient files for a local doctor who was trying to get clinics up and running faster. "It makes you feel really good being able to be there and help people, and even just to talk to them," said Schonbrun. Volunteer RN Tammi Bachecki, of Walnut Creek, Calif. said that the Bahamas deployment, like her three other RNRN missions, reinforced how critical it is for nurses to answer the call to help. And that's not just true, she says, in the immediate aftermath, but also weeks and months later, when patients still need care, including the mental health care RNRN nurses predict Dorian survivors will need. "It always hits me when I get home from a deployment, and I flick on a light switch, and there's electricity, and I use my faucet and I have water," said Bachecki. "We kind of get caught up in the everyday rat race, and it reminds you of what is important." "As nurses we have a responsibility to speak up not only for our patients, but our planet as well," said Grant, noting that recent disasters like Hurricane Dorian are fueled by the climate crisis. NNU is actively fighting climate change, supporting global policies that shift humans away from a reliance on fossil fuels, and supporting the enactment of the Green New Deal. RNRN nurses know that while they fight for a healthier future, they will also continue doing everything in their power to care for victims of the climate crisis. "Even if it's just to sit and talk," said Grant, "we are always here to help." —Kari Jones J U LY | A U G U S T | S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 9 W W W . N A T I O N A L N U R S E S U N I T E D . O R G N A T I O N A L N U R S E 5 An island in the storm RNRN Bahamas volunteers help heal survivors of Hurricane Dorian

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