Shelter gets TLC from NLC

Staff and students from North Lake College volunteered to provide medical care at the Dallas Convention Center as victims of Hurricane Katrina arrived there from the Gulf Coast.

They joined others from Dallas County Community Colleges and a huge contingent of local medical professionals who provided round-the-clock care throughout the month of September. By chance, NLC nursing students and staff members from other departments found themselves working under the same roof, in different areas of what they agreed was a well-organized medical response.

Like many other schools, North Lake prepares key personnel for the worst while hoping for the best. Specialized training contributes to employees’ readiness when the unthinkable happens, even when such events take place far from campus.

“I took disaster training a few months ago at UT Southwestern. Who’d of thought I’d have to use it,” said NLC’s Day Nurse Jean Mills. When the Health Services department, headed by Virginia Jones, R.N., sent Mills to disaster response training it couldn’t have predicted that the additional knowledge would, by extension, benefit people from three southern states.

When North Lake brought the Associate Degree Nursing Program to campus a year ago, it knew it would turn out well-qualified professionals. It didn’t know it was preparing students who would generously volunteer their time on the front lines of a major triage effort. Eleven of the program’s students stepped forward to aid hurricane victims who were brought to Dallas.

Lead faculty member Diana Reding oversaw their training in North Lake’s state-accredited nursing program. They were prepared to assist with patient screening, taking vital signs and participating in triage efforts that directed victims to appropriate specialists. Across campus, Mills, who does not instruct students but sees them as patients, also responded to obvious needs at the shelter.

“I just knew I needed to go,” said Mills, on how she decided to donate her services as a volunteer nurse. Upon entering the Convention Center for the first time, she was struck by the enormity of the situation. “As far as I could look, I saw cots,” she said. “There were kids unattended, husbands missing wives and families who couldn’t find their kids.” The hurricane and its chaotic aftermath affected victims in different ways, even in the safety of the shelter.

As the month of September drew to a close, most evacuees who stayed at area shelters were given more permanent housing arrangements. Dallas City Hall launched a campaign called Project Exodus, which generated donations and funded two months rent and utilities for those leaving the city’s shelter.

The city’s response operation, led in large part by the Salvation Army and the American Red Cross, had most everything it needed to treat patients rapidly. Area pharmacists teamed up to staff an onsite pharmacy. Immediate transport to the hospital was available from ambulances kept at-the-ready. Mills likened the triage area to the television show M.A.S.H., which depicted U.S. Army doctors treating American soldiers in a dusty compound of large canvas tents during the Korean War.

Mills from the campus health center and students from NLC’s new nursing program said they worked in different parts of the treatment area. Yet, the missions they volunteered for were quite similar. In addition to offering their expertise and rendering aid, they tried to provide comfort.

According to Mills, it was important to lend an ear and to allow victims a chance to tell their stories and air their grief. “Then they could process and start dealing with it,” she said.