USF Nursing Alum, Jewell C Booth, Makes a Difference in Global Health

University of South Florida College of Nursing alum, Jewell C Booth, BSN, RN, CPN, CN III, is making a difference around the world helping people in need of care in countries such as Panama, Haiti, and Egypt. Booth’s passion to take her clinical experience abroad came after a Community Health International Clinical Experience trip in Panama while working on her degree at USF. She graduated with a Bachelor’s degree from USF Nursing in 2007.

“What started out as a Community Health nursing course with a curriculum and objectives on paper became the international clinical experience of a lifetime,” Booth said.

Booth’s international clinical experience became part of her career as a registered nurse in Pediatric Critical Care at Duke University Hospital in Durham, North Carolina. She has been working for the hospital for more than four years.

“My nursing career has allowed me to participate in disaster relief efforts in Port au Prince, Haiti 2010 following the earthquake where I held the hand of TB patients on the edge of death, cared for neurologically devastated teenagers with advanced meningitis, escorted a tetanus ravaged infant across the country in the middle of the night, and delivered new babies into the world,” Booth said. “My experience in pediatric critical care has led me across the globe to Assiut, Egypt in 2011 where I cared for over a dozen babies and children who had received open heart surgery, and was humbled to provide a teaching experience for both doctors and nurses unfamiliar with the critically ill child.”

Booth said, her experience during the Community Health International Clinical Experience trip in Panama forever changed her life. Her experience with children in Las Nubes, Panama was the turning point for her nursing career.

“I kneeled on a muddy hillside in the indigenous village of Las Nubes, Panama, I discovered a barefoot toddler with pneumonia who liked the lollipops in my pocket so much he didn’t even notice the stethoscope I placed on his back.  It was in that moment, surrounded by buckets of cloudy drinking water, cardboard homes with tin roofs, and by a people who knew no English but a smile, that I also discovered the life of service I was destined for.”

Booth said, her life would not have taken this direction without  the community health experience in Panama and nursing degree that she received from the USF College of Nursing. She encourages all students to participate in clinical, community, and cultural health care experiences beyond the reaches of their local communities to not only discover the challenges and rewards of health care delivery, but also the uninhibited expression of humanity towards the underserved within themselves and others.

“The health disparities I have experienced first-hand have inspired me to devote my talents to the promotion of health and wellness, and to reducing the burden of disease across global communities,” Booth said. “I have also gained an invaluable experience and lifetime friends in Panama.”

Booth was part of the first group of students who traveled to Panama as part of the USF Nursing Community Health International Clinical Experience in 2005. During the trip, Booth and her group went to several communities and conducted door-to-door visits to provide preventative screenings and primary care services such as home safety assessments and education, environmental surveys, water safety instruction, dental hygiene education, physical exams, pediatric growth and development screenings, immunizations, gynecological exams, medication administration, referrals, health prevention education, and medical record reviews.

“We collaborated with professors and students of the University of Panama School of Nursing as well as the Panama Ministry of Health to assess the health needs of urban, rural and indigenous communities throughout Panama and deliver interventions tailored to each,” Booth said. “We visited a busy Women and Children’s Hospital in Panama City to observe the mother-baby dynamic and promote healthy bonding, a suburban grade school, Cubayita, where we taught smart nutrition practices to young children, a rural health clinic located high in the mountains of Panama where we conducted health screenings, and Las Nubes, an isolated indigenous village of the Kunayala where a mobile hospital of dozens of health care workers and students were brought to the people.”

The Community Health International Clinical Experience, led by Sandra J. Cadena, PhD, APRN, CNE, Assistant Professor and Coordinator of Global Health at the USF College of Nursing, aims to develop international relationships to facilitate and support future research and educational experiences for students and the communities in Hispanic countries.

Over the years, Booth has received several awards including a Leadership Award from the USF College of Nursing. She has also been the President of the Florida Nursing Students Association, Vice President of Nursing for the International Health Service Collaborative, and speaker for the USF AHEC access day.  Booth has been the recipient of several scholarships including the Lettie Pate Whitehead Foundation Scholarship and recipient of the USF College of Nursing Green Cross Scholarship.

Booth wants to continue her international clinical experience. In Fall 2012, she will start her master’s degree in Global Public Health with concentration in health policy and management at the University of North Carolina. In the future, she also aspires to be a leading agent of change in the global health arena.