Despite their demanding jobs, Patricia Irouer Hughes, RN, MSN, BSN, OCN, and her colleagues on the oncology unit of Piedmont Healthcare in the Atlanta, Georgia, metropolitan area find time to volunteer in their community. "We are a special breed even though we cannot all be Florence Nightingale or Clara Barton," she says. Service learning or volunteerism was one of the requirements for acquiring her MSN degree from Regis University in Colorado, in keeping with the school motto "Men and Women in Service of Others."
Hughes has also done volunteer work for an organization that provides training for women aged 18 to 35 years to prepare them for employment and currently volunteers in two personal care homes, assisting the owner to maintain records for state inspection. She is also planning to assist the homes with activities using the mind and body. Her nursing colleagues have also provided services above and beyond their regular full-time jobs.
Ernestine for many years volunteered at her church adult day care center while being a single parent. Judy has done mission work in thirdworld countries as well as at home. Xia has used her annual vacations to volunteer for medical service trips and mission trips to Thailand and China, and this year she will volunteer as a nurse in India. Krupa has done mission work in Bulgaria and says, "It was a grateful, spiritual, holistic, and emotional experience...I went there thinking I would help the people, but I learned more from them than I could have ever given them."
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