Scott is home

Folks, I apologize for not being able to update the blog since earlier this week. I returned home to SW Wisconsin Wednesday afternoon because of family emergency.

I've emailed others in Louisiana who were interested in keeping the blog and hope they will be able to continue updating us on the exciting news from Lafayette. From what I hear, there is good news coming!

Thanks for allowing me to tell the MN Lifeline story through this week. I also encourage you to visit the Rochester MN Post Bulletin, where a blog has been kept by the reporter and photographer visiting us earlier this week: http://www.postbulletin.com/.

Scott Harpin

Cajun Dome shot clinic

Saturday was an especially busy day for the team as we put into place a group effort of mass dispensing of immunizations at the Cajun Dome. After the Superdome in New Orleans and the Astrodome in Houston, the Cajun Dome's name pops up as one of the main evacuee shelters for the hurricanes; Lafayette's honor of being on I-10 between these two major cities makes it a main stopping point for visitors traveling between the two points.

The Dome was dauntnting, yet personable. The folks there were very nice and very gracious. With the help of Hennepin County and U of MN mass dispensing experts as telephone consultant planners, we were able to effectively and efficiently immunize many residents. (I wish I could quote a solid number, but it hasn't been released yet. 1800-2000 people would be a solid, random guess.) Most important, we didn't have long lines, nor clamoring violence from people waiting to get immunized.

The team all pitched in well and worked smooth. It was fun to see a multi-disciplinary group of healthcare workers and non-healthcare workers on the same page. Our fearless leader, Dr. Karyn Baum, can be seen above working with a prospective client in the 'health education' and consent phase of the clinic. A myriad of nurses, physicians, psychologists, counselors, clinical ass'ts, med students and even National Guard members (our friend, PFC. Sylvester, interpreted for us at one point during the day, 12-gauge shotgun en tow!) pitched in to aid the effort.

After this exhausting day, teams and vans scattered to enjoy the fruits of their labor with cheerful team building throughout Lafayette. The following day would be a day of rest as week 1 came to a close.

"Police juries"

Our team has felt a shift in the mission of the group today as we are clearly making a move away from acute care medicine and post-crisis stabilization to more of a public health model and healthcare sustainability within the public health units. There is still great need in emergency shelters, but we have felt all along that the main mission of working closely with the PHUs is a chief goal and one that must remain center on the radar screen. Today, we continued discussions with public health leaders in various parishes and consciously made efforts to complement services in PHU physical space as opposed to creating new clinics in alternative locations.

While out talking to PHN leaders, we learned of 'police juries', the former name of the parish councils or our equivalent of county boards. In St. Martin's parish, our van even went to meet the parish council leader who offered some great insights into the public health needs of that parishs' residents. In Vermillion parish, our team met with a local mayor to talk about what is going on in that community. As a public health nurse myself, it is great to see the shift to public health thinking in our team which tends to lean as having more experience in acute care settings.

Tomorrow, we'll continue our work in the communities and partner with the local agencies to build their effort. We hope that we lay the groundwork so that team 3 can come in and pick up where we left off with ease.

Day of rest

Sunday was a cathartic day of rest after a highly successful, yet tiring day of mass immunizations at the Cajun Dome. (Check out the yet-to-be posted post on that effort.) Teams slept in and gathered up van loads to go out and tour various sites in Cajun country. Many vans went south into the extremes of 'death and destruction' left by Hurricane Rita along the Intercoastal highway, especially in Cameron Parish which we've heard is virtually condemmed. Many happy, excited tourists returned very sober and moved after viewing these sites during their trips. Luckily, we've heard that there were no human deaths with Rita in Louisiana.




Scott's van-mates on the Gulf Coast south of Franklin, on the way to Morgan City.







At days end, nearly the entire team found themselves at local eating joint Prejean's for cajun food and atmosphere. There were no late nights as we, exhausted from the busy weekend, had to motivate for a new week and gear up for a renewed mission. (More about that in a later posting.)

We send our hearts out to one of our Lifeline team members who had to return home for her father's funeral. Wendy, we're with you in spirit and you're with us the rest of our days here in LA.

Vaccinations galore!

Our team is gearing up for a grand adventure of mass vaccination at the Cajun Dome tomorrow. To build team for this effort, we've started a pool to guess the total vaccinations given by Team 2 over this two week period. Following a brief inservice, we practiced on each other by giving annual flu shots. This effort will be all the more extraordinary as we are staffing our Lafayette clinic and Special Needs Shelter minimally so the entire team can be a part of the day. We anticipate much revelry tomorrow evening after a successful event.

Friday night was also a night for more team-building, at "Downtown Tonight" and at the now-infamous Blue Dog Cafe.