The email came in late last Wednesday evening.
Professor Joann Sands, a nursing instructor for the UB School of Nursing, scrolled through her inbox to find a plea for help sent to her from the local Medical Reserve Core (MRC). They needed assistance of experienced and professional medical staff to aid in the relief efforts that have been organized in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy.
The following day, Sands approached her superior with the idea of taking volunteers from the nursing school to travel with her down to Suffolk County, Long Island, alongside assorted EMT's, volunteer firefighters and other trained medical staff.
Sands' peers wasted no time in giving her their consent in the endeavor, and at approximately 1 p.m., a mass email was sent out to all senior nursing students asking them to volunteer their services for the relief effort.
"Students had about one hour to decide if they wanted to participate in this relief effort," Sands said. "They had to get themselves packed, ready to go and then report back to campus."
Lyndsey Conway, a senior nursing student, was one of seven UB students who were able to aid in the medical relief efforts. She decided 20 minutes before the deadline she wanted to help.
"I pretty much had a half hour to get everything ready and to get back to campus," Conway said. "From campus, we had to go down to Albany and meet up with other medical personnel from other areas, and then continue the drive down into Suffolk County."
According to Sands, her and the seven UB students, along with 20 other trained professionals with various medical skills and training, arrived in Suffolk County around 1 a.m. Friday morning.
The relief team began working around 8 a.m. and didn't stop until approximately 1 p.m. on Monday afternoon, according to Sands.
According to Conway, the UB relief team primarily operated out of the John J. Foley Nursing Facility in Yaphank, N.Y.
Within the facility, students and staff members cleared out two existing dining rooms and established two additional care and treatment centers, aiding in any way they could with the patients and the overall population of the area, many of whom are still without electricity, housing and food, according to Conway.
According to Sands, although the area they were operating in had not borne the brunt of the devastation brought on by the hurricane, there were people coming from over 20-30 miles away seeking medical aid and the comforts of a hot meal, dry clothing or someone to talk to.
"A lot of what we did was really just patient interaction, talking to people and letting them tell their stories," Sands said. "It was just a very therapeutic process for some of the patients to have someone there to listen to them and to have some to talk with."
According to Conway, one of the primary forms of medical care the relief group provided was assisting in the administration of prescriptions for individuals who were either unable to medicate themselves or who didn't have access to their medications.
The UB nursing students were given lists of the residents who were known to be on medications and in need of medical assistance. They attempted to call these individuals to ensure they were okay and to see if they needed any other medical assistance.
"A lot of the other direct nursing care we provided was day-to-day self-care for the patients," Conway said. "We would help the patients out of bed, get them showered and dressed and assist them with any other standard hygiene issues. We helped to feed them, and we helped administer the patients with any of their prescription medications they needed to take."
According to Sands, the service the UB students rendered was on a strictly voluntary level. Her students took on this endeavor without any form of compensation and simply volunteered to help in any way they could and, according to Sands, she couldn't be happier with the results of their relief effort.
"I'm just so proud of the students that went down," Sands said. "It was an incredible, real life learning experience for the students, and they represented [the school] so well. I'm just super proud of what they helped to accomplish."
Conway was equally proud of her efforts as well as the efforts made by her fellow students.
"We helped a lot of patients get in touch with their family members, who up until then had had no idea if their loved ones were safe or in danger and the [family members] were so thankful to learn that their families were OK and were being taken care of," Conway said. "Over the four-day weekend, we helped about 44 individual people with their everyday needs. You could just feel the positive response from the community for our support."
Conway encourages students to get out and help in any way they can with the relief efforts on and off campus.
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