Nurse Juliette first started working in the clinic in May 2015 in the wound care/emergency room, where she continues to work. During cholera spikes, she would help care for these patients as well in the cholera treatment center (CTC). Her shifts are 6a-6p or 6p-6a. She usually has 3 to four shifts per week. When she comes in at 6, she will look over all the kids in the rescue center and check the NG tubes and IVs. Around 7, she will give insulin to several patients and also give medications to the children. For the rest of the morning, she is mostly in the wound care/emergency room. She will also do scheduled vital signs on inpatient children and keep a close eye on the most ill. Around noon, she has an hour long break. From 1 until 5, she is doing more of the same, but during slow times she will clean, restock, and organize the room. She also helps out other staff. Around 5, she gathers all the info to report on the day’s activities and preps for the next shift.
She is 35 years old and lives in Arcahaie with her husband (married in 2018) and their 2 year old daughter. She also has a 15 year old son that lives near her at his paternal grandmother’s house. His father and her haven’t been together for many years and he lives in another country. Her parents aren’t together, but live close to her. Her mom buy/sells in the local open-air market. Her dad raises cows and other animals for a living. She has 6 sisters and 1 brother, whose jobs vary. Her husband has a business stand where he sells household goods, drinks, and snacks. He’s been to school for electricity, plumbing, and tile, but can’t find steady work for these things. Juliette was also in law school before she had her second child. She wanted to combine both professions (medicine and law) and help solve crimes. She hasn’t decided if she will continue with law school. When she was younger, she was in a dance group that performed. Now, the only groups she is in are at church.
Her, her husband, their child, and her step-child live in a two room house made of block with a flat cement roof. They would like to build a second story on their home. They have a bathroom and shower and get their water from a hand pump at a school near their house. They buy their drinking water from a truck that drives around selling it.
In her job, she enjoys learning new things and helping people. The variety of cases and situations is interesting and challenging to keep her always thinking. Due to her job, she is able to help her family, friends, and church. Especially satisfying is that she can help other children in school. Building relationships with patients and seeing them heal beings her great happiness. She tries to educate and encourage all her patients.
She doesn’t like it when patients don’t take her advice or value her efforts in helping them. Negligence is always discouraging as well. There are times when the patients return, but have removed their dressings and this is frustrating for her. She would like for everyone to understand how serious wounds are and keep them clean so they will heal.
One story she will always remember is a man with a broken ankle/leg. He had fallen off of an irrigation ditch and the bone was outside. Friends carried him to the clinic where we were able to put the bone back in place and stabilize him for transfer. Another man, had severely cut his hand with a machete. The roads were blocked and a referral wasn’t possible. We sutured him up the best we could and he healed well.
She enjoys working with RHFH and sees the many ways that the mission helps many people with health, hygiene, physical, educational, and economic needs. She sees that there are many urgent cases in our rural area (nearest hospital is 1 hour away) and having emergency services open 24/7 is saving lives.
Her family attends the Catholic church and she would ask you to pray for the embassy to open up their visa services again so that her older son could get a visa to go live with his father.