Kau (pronounced Ko) Alpha, RN, left her homeland of Liberia (West Africa) in the late 1980s to escape poverty and the violence of civil war, which plagued the country for years.<\/p>\n
But her heart never left.<\/p>\n
The clinical documentation specialist with St. Luke\u2019s returned to Liberia in March as a volunteer with the Nurse2Nurse education organization, based out of York, Pa., and comprising Liberian expats, all of them nurses or nurse practitioners. They spent the week providing refresher training to nurses in the healthcare basics and donating much-needed equipment that will help the nurses take care of patients in the struggling health system there.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019ve suffered so much,\u201d said Alpha, of Forks Township, who has been employed at St. Luke\u2019s since 2003.<\/p>\n
For a week, the 18 RNs from Nurse2Nurse taught a competency-based program for the Liberia Ministry of Health in the country\u2019s capital, Monrovia. They helped the local nurses brush up on their clinical skills, focusing on a variety of topics: CPR, blood pressure and blood glucose monitoring, infectious disease prevention, stroke and heart attack diagnosis and treatment, blood transfusions, foley catheter care, behavioral health, stroke. Each day, 50 nurses, who traveled from hospitals throughout the country, participated in the refresher sessions. Alpha taught modern documentation practices, which, she noted, are severely lacking, though critical to quality patient care.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf something isn\u2019t documented on the patient\u2019s chart, that means it never happened,\u201d she said, adding that it\u2019s required for continuity of care as well as to obtain reimbursement from the Liberian government, which operates and finances the health system there.<\/p>\n
When the nurses completed this training, they each received a certificate and an assessment kit that contained a BP cuff, stethoscope, glucose meter, CPR mask and thermometer.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re lacking basic equipment for providing patient care,\u201d Alpha explained.<\/p>\n
This wasn\u2019t her first return trip to her birthplace; she has gone there every few years to see family still living in a rural town outside of Monrovia. And each time, Alpha was shocked to see how the healthcare system was in a shambles, a byproduct of the poverty, political unrest and disease that have plagued her native country for years. The most recent devastating scourge was the Ebola outbreak in 2014, which took the lives of thousands of citizens and healthcare workers.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey had no PPE or knowledge of how to avoid or treat the virus,\u201d Alpha said.<\/p>\n
Today, the country is rebounding slowly but still desperate for medical materials and expertise.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are bad outcomes, high mortality in hospitals and villages, and morale is low,\u201d said Alpha, who graduated from nursing school in New Jersey in 2000.<\/p>\n
Making the teaching trip back to her country of origin this spring fulfilled her heart\u2019s desire to help fellow nurses, a dream she has had each time she would leave Liberia after a visit with her family.\u00a0 She hopes to return next year with Nurse2Nurse, because the need for her clinical and coding skills is critical to improving the country\u2019s health.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a privilege for me to go over and help,\u201d she says.\u00a0 \u201cI always wanted to do something for Liberia or any other country in need.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Nurse2Nurse organization holds various fundraising efforts throughout the year to help obtain the money to purchase the medical instruments and pay for travel expenses.<\/p>\n
To make a donation, or learn more about the organization, visit\u00a0nurse2nurse.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n Photo caption: St. Luke’s clinical documentation specialist Kau Alpha, RN, speaks to a group of Liberian nurses in the capital, Monrovia, during a refresher program in which she volunteered in March.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n About St. Luke\u2019s<\/strong><\/p>\n Founded in 1872,\u00a0St. Luke\u2019s University Health Network<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0(SLUHN) is a fully integrated, regional, non-profit network of more than 20,000 employees providing services at 15 campuses and 350+ outpatient sites.\u00a0 With annual net revenue of $3.4 billion, the Network\u2019s service area includes 11 counties in two states: Lehigh, Northampton, Berks, Bucks, Carbon, Montgomery, Monroe, Schuylkill and Luzerne counties in Pennsylvania and Warren and Hunterdon counties in New Jersey. St. Luke\u2019s hospitals operate the largest network of trauma centers in Pennsylvania, with the Bethlehem Campus being home to St. Luke\u2019s Children\u2019s Hospital.<\/p>\n Dedicated to advancing medical education, St. Luke\u2019s is the preeminent teaching hospital in central-eastern Pennsylvania.\u00a0 In partnership with Temple University, the Network established the Lehigh Valley\u2019s first and only four-year medical school campus.\u00a0 It also operates the nation\u2019s oldest School of Nursing, established in 1884, and 52 fully accredited graduate medical educational programs with more than 500 residents and fellows. In 2022, St. Luke\u2019s, a member of the Children\u2019s Hospital Association, opened the Lehigh Valley\u2019s first and only free-standing facility dedicated entirely to kids.<\/p>\n SLUHN is the only Lehigh Valley-based health care system to earn Medicare\u2019s\u00a0five-star<\/em>\u00a0ratings (the highest) for quality, efficiency and patient satisfaction.\u00a0 It is both a Leapfrog Group and Healthgrades\u00a0Top Hospital<\/em>\u00a0and a Newsweek World\u2019s\u00a0Best Hospital<\/em>.\u00a0 The Network\u2019s flagship University Hospital has earned the\u00a0100 Top Major Teaching Hospital<\/em>\u00a0designation from Fortune\/PINC AI 10 years in a row, including in 2023 when it was identified as THE #4 TEACHING HOSPITAL IN THE COUNTRY.\u00a0 In 2021, St. Luke\u2019s was identified as one of the\u00a015 Top Health Systems<\/em>\u00a0nationally.\u00a0 Utilizing the Epic electronic medical record (EMR) system for both inpatient and outpatient services, the Network is a multi-year recipient of the\u00a0Most Wired<\/em>\u00a0award recognizing the breadth of the SLUHN\u2019s information technology applications such as telehealth, online scheduling and online pricing information. \u00a0The Network is also recognized as one of the state\u2019s lowest-cost providers.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Information provided to TVL by: Kau (pronounced Ko) Alpha, RN, left her homeland of Liberia (West Africa) in the late 1980s to escape poverty and the violence of civil war, which plagued the country for … Continue reading St. Luke\u2019s Nurse Trains Nurses in Africa<\/span>
\nSam Kennedy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"