RICHLAND, Wash. – Two nonprofits that provide free medical and social services to community members in the regional Tri-Cities now have iPads to help expand access to translation and interpreting services. The access to the technology was made possible by a partnership with Washington State University Tri-Cities nursing students and the .

provides free medical, dental and mental health services to uninsured individuals. The provides a free place to sleep, as well as social and medical support services, to regional homeless individuals.

Avonte Jackson, director of Grace Clinic, said the clinic serves a large population of individuals whose primary language is one other than English. She said it can be challenging to find volunteers who can interpret medical terminology. This is especially��difficult for family members who may be asked to translate medical jargon for relatives at their appointments, she said.

Giving back to the community as part of education

In a class focusing on community health practices, ���سԹ� nursing students examined what they could do to help expand medical access in areas where it was crucially needed. While completing clinical experiences at Grace Clinic, the group noticed the need for translation for patients that don’t speak English.

“As a group, we chose to focus on the immigrant and refugee population in the Tri-Cities area,” said Magaly Torres, a senior ���سԹ� nursing student at the time and now alumna. “While completing clinicals at Grace Clinic, we found that many patients do not speak English and the majority required an interpreter.”

Torres and fellow students Bridget Hohl and Beth Phillips came up with the idea to use iPads to provide the service, as they provided great versatility at a relatively small price point. Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, however, the group faced challenges with raising the funds needed to finalize the project.

���سԹ� student Mikaela Thepvongsa said where they would normally host public fundraising events, such as a bake sale, those opportunities were no longer an option, as of last spring. Their instructor, Jennifer Larson, came up with the idea to submit a proposal to the Kadlec Foundation this fall.

“The Kadlec Foundation graciously donated funds to purchase two refurbished iPads for Grace Clinic and the Union Gospel Mission,” Thepvongsa said.

Expanding translation and interpreting services

Jackson said the donation of an iPad will allow Grace Clinic to expand access to medical services in a large way.

“We serve a large Spanish-speaking population, but also individuals who speak a variety of other languages,” she said. “This technology will help us in communicating with patients and their family members as we seek to expand access to medical care in the Tri-Cities for those who otherwise couldn’t afford it due to lack of insurance or other factors.”

Similar to Grace Clinic, the Tri-City Union Gospel Mission serves clients whose original home countries span the globe. Chariss Warner, the ministry director, said an iPad will also allow their staff and volunteers to address issues in a culturally-sensitive manner.

“I can think of specific examples where words we use can cause fear or misunderstandings,” Warner said. “Having this ability to meet the clients where they are at will be life-changing for many. It will help us build trust and understanding between clients and the health care industry, as a whole.”

“I would just like to thank (���سԹ� nursing students) for seeing a need and then meeting the need,” Warner said. “It takes a special group of people to not just see a problem and walk away in judgement, but to come alongside and in partnership to raise the standard of care. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts.”

Support from Kadlec Foundation

Rebecca Thornton, development manager at the Kadlec Foundation, said Kadlec has made a targeted effort this year, especially amid the pandemic, to offer more community-facing programming and services outside of what they provide through the traditional clinical setting.

“That has been extra important, given the last year and limitations for in-person access to medical services,” she said. “Technology like iPads has allowed us to grow patient access to seeing medical professionals, as well as breaking down additional barriers to medical services. We are thrilled to be able to partner with the ���سԹ� nursing program to provide this resource to Grace Clinic and the Tri-City Union Gospel Mission.”

For more information about the ���سԹ� nursing program and ways to partner, visit tricities.wsu.edu/nursing.

 

Media contacts:

Avonte Jackson, Grace Clinic director, 509-735-2300, avontej@gracecliniconline.org

Chariss Warner, Tri-City Union Gospel Mission ministries director, 509-547-2112 Ext. 112, maegan_murray@wsu.edu

Mikaela Thepvongsa, ���سԹ� nursing student, mikaela.thepvongsa@wsu.edu

Maegan Murray, ���سԹ� director of marketing and communication, 619-403-3617 (cell), maegan_murray@wsu.edu

���سԹ� nursing alum planned to do missionary work abroad, but the COVID-19 pandemic changed his plans

By Maegan Murray

RICHLAND, Wash. – Prior to the onset of COVID-19, recently graduated Washington State University Tri-Cities nursing alumnus Nikita Fisenko had his heart set on traveling abroad as a nursing missionary in areas that otherwise would not have access to medical care.

He hoped to temporarily return to his native country of Uzbekistan to visit his homeland and relive his childhood. He hoped to also travel to Israel to apply both his nursing skill and evangelize to individuals and families.

“I believe there are countless needs around the world, and even in my hometown,” he said.

In college, he worked hard to apply the hands-on learning he received both through the WSU nursing program and through clinical experiences. He studied abroad twice – once to Costa Rica as part of a health translation program, and a second time to Peru with fellow WSU nursing students to provide care to remote communities that otherwise might not receive it. He also completed additional clinical experiences at Kadlec, which wasn’t required for the WSU nursing program after completing the experience abroad in Peru. But he said he wanted to prepare himself as best he could as a future nurse.

His hard work and passion for the field led him to earn the Outstanding Bachelor’s of Science in Nursing Student Award last December – given to only one nursing student WSU systemwide.

After graduation, he took several months to complete a program through the Youth Bible Program in Everett, Washington, to prepare a spiritual foundation in his faith, where he read through the whole New Testament of the Bible. With the pandemic that began in March, his plans changed, but he secured a position locally where he could still apply quality care to the regional Tri-Cities community.

“Being a nurse is a gift, a blessing and a privilege,” he said. “Providing holistic care is the best care, and that means physical, social, mental and spiritual well-being.”

Quality care locally

Fisenko took on a registered nursing position with the emergency department at Kadlec Regional Medical Center in Richland in Aug. 2020, where he has continued to put his background in healthcare to good use amid the pandemic.

“Since the onset of COVID-19, my nursing skills, knowledge and training have become the best tools and resources,” he said. “As new information is released about the virus, treatment plan, and precautions, each frontline worker must prioritize personal safety as the most essential.”

He said even with all precautions taken, however, there are still risks with the virus, for both him and his family. He said his faith has allowed him the mental clarity, drive and hope to continue to provide exceptional care and provide for his family.

“Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen,” he said. “Thus, I must stand strong in my faith that I will remain healthy and well, so I can continue to work and provide for my family.”

Compassionate care amid difficult times

Workload for nurses has certainly increased amid the pandemic. Fisenko said with the stress of the system and added stress by unhealthy individuals that otherwise would find themselves well, sometimes come unhappy patients.

He said he can add positivity to an otherwise undesirable situation through being compassionate and thorough in delivery of care, as well as with a positive attitude with those he serves and works with.

“When a patient arrives to the emergency department in critical condition, I realize it is my duty and desire to help and support the patient in the best way I know,” he said. “With the caring leadership of emergency doctors and compassionate nurses, I believe the patient is receiving the best care during their stay. Educating my patients about their health and care brings me joy and fulfillment. I want to give power of information and understanding to each patient, so when they go home, they know how to get better and continue to stay healthy.”

Plans post-COVID

Post-COVID-19, Fisenko said he still hopes to use his skill in medical care and background in faith outside of the regional Tri-Cities community. He also continues to grow his knowledge for wherever life may take him.

In addition to his fluency in Spanish, Russian and Ukrainian, he is working on adding American Sign Language to the list, which he hopes to apply locally and wherever his role may take him states-side.

“I pray that God blesses me with an opportunity to go on a mission to serve people spiritually and medically,” he said. “My desire is to go to Spanish speaking countries where I could l utilize my language skills. I also want to serve the deaf and hard of hearing communities.”

By Maegan Murray, ���سԹ�

RICHLAND, Wash. – From her first semester in the Washington State University Tri-Cities nursing program, Kenzie McNeel knew she wanted to do something special with her senior clinical rotation experience.

Shortly after transferring from another university in Washington state, she learned of the opportunity to complete her senior clinical experience in remote villages in Peru via a faculty-led program over the summer. There, she would work with other nursing and pharmacy students across the WSU university system to provide care to individuals that may otherwise not have access to medical resources.

The WSU College of Nursing partners with a nonprofit organization known as the “People of Peru Project” each summer for the opportunity, which is run by Paul Opp, from Washington state.

“I have been planning for it since that first semester,” McNeel said. “I knew it would provide experiences that would help prepare me for a future career as a nurse, but it would also allow me to provide much needed services to remote communities that, without volunteers, otherwise may not see that care. ”

Applying skills from the classroom to the real-world

McNeel was one of three students from ���سԹ� to attend the faculty-led trip, with the others being Nikita Fisenko and Sarah Miller, who joined several nursing students from WSU Spokane.

The soon-to-be nurses learned on the fly, providing immediate medical care to patients, medical education, observed how medical care was performed at a residence housing HIV patients, completed medical tests and performed community assessments where they identified resources available for individuals in that community and what could be added.

As a team, they bonded with each other as students and future nurses. McNeel said she enjoyed getting to know students from throughout the WSU system that she had only interacted with through remote classes via video conferencing.

The students also learned a lot about how to survive under difficult circumstances.

Adaptability, McNeel said, was one of the greatest things she personally learned. Often times, the students were in a tented shelter without walls or windows, had to carry in all of their supplies and had to cope with only having certain amount of medications, tools and time to help all of their patients for the day. The group could see an average of 100-150 patients in a single day.

“Often times, we didn’t know what we were going to be doing that day, or even much about the community we were going to, but we had to use our skills to the best of our ability to provide the best medical care possible,” she said. “These communities didn’t have the luxuries of medical access like we do here in the United States.”

Experiencing the culture and living of Peru

In addition to applying their medical skills to help individuals in the remote communities, the students also had the opportunity to learn more about the culture, ways of life and complete sight seeing excursions while in Peru.

The students toured local nursing schools, a local hospital, a special needs school and a deaf school. They went on nature walks through the jungle where they saw spiders the size of their faces, swam in the Amazon River, stopped in a monkey sanctuary and visited Machu Picchu. And they had the opportunity to chat with locals about their experiences in their community and handed out toys to the local children.

“I honestly never thought I would have this experience growing up, and especially as a nursing student,” she said.�� “It was truly incredible.”

Using what she learned abroad for future as a nurse

Heading into the future, McNeel hopes to go into labor and delivery where she looks forward to bringing new life into the world.

And while she and her fellow nursing students did not get to witness any births while in Peru, they supplied prenatal and breastfeeding education. McNeel said she will also continue to use the foundational skills she learned and cultivated during her time in South America.

“Here, things go more according to plan and we have the tools to really support patients, but I have the confidence now to know that I can face those complications head on,” she said.

She said she also hopes to one day return to Peru to continue helping with the project, even on a short-term basis.

“While we were there, there was a nurse volunteering that did the program through WSU Spokane – she was there for 6 weeks,” she said. “I want to do that, as well … I definitely recommend this experience to other students who are pursuing a career in nursing. It was an amazing experience.”

RICHLAND, Wash. –�� Nikita Fisenko was 10 years old when he came to the United States with his family from Uzbekistan.

“At the age of 7, in a family of seven kids, my father passed away of cancer,” he said. “It was really hard. My father was our only support.”

Because his grandmother lived in the United States, the family was able to apply for residency. After a several-year grueling application process and after selling everything they owned, Fisenko and his family found their new home in eastern Washington. At the time, Fisenko had four English phrases to his memory.

“Yes, no, thank you and hot tea,” he said. “It was cold when we came and asked for Chai and learned that in English, it was hot tea.”

Fisenko spent several years playing catch-up with his English and studying hard to learn school subjects in a language not his own, but one thing always served as an encouragement: one-day he would use his own experiences in overcoming hardships to help others. Little did he know that his ideal career would be in the medical field and that Washington State University Tri-Cities would help take him places that would allow him to help those less fortunate.

“I’m using my education and experiences at ���سԹ� to help others through my future career as a nurse,” he said. “It’s exciting to know that I can have that personal impact.”

Realizing his medical passion

Fisenko studied diligently in Spanish because he thought that one-day he could use the language in a career as a Christian missionary, which had always been a passion of his. He used his experience in high school working in the fruit fields and factories to chat in Spanish with his fellow employees that, in combination with his Spanish courses, allowed him to become nearly fluent in the language.

He also excelled in mathematics – it was the one subject that didn’t require a mastery of the English language.

As his schooling rolled on, however, Fisenko developed an interest in the medical field, which led him to enroll in the Tri-Tech Skills Center’s pre-nursing program. He wanted to see if the medical route would be right for him. It turned out to be a perfect fit, as it would still allow him to use his fluency in Spanish to help others.

“I’m a people person, and nursing allows you to work with people to help them overcome their medical ailments and really have an impact,” he said. “With my background in Spanish, I could also use that to reduce barriers for others who originally like me, don’t speak English.”

He chose ���سԹ� to prepare him for his future career as a nurse because it would allow him to live at home and help his family with expenses, but also receive a first-class education.

“���سԹ� ended up being the perfect fit for where I’m at in my life, what I want to accomplish and the people I hope to help,” he said.

Around the world in the medical field

At ���سԹ�, Fisenko takes his studies very seriously. The 4.0 student said he aims to learn everything he can so that he can be the best nurse he can be.

“I want to be a nurse that actually changes things – I want to make a difference,” he said. “So I can’t just memorize the material for the sake of doing well on tests. I have to really know the material because I’m going to apply it to my career as a nurse where I can have a real impact on people.”

Fisenko said he had always wanted to travel to a country where Spanish was the primary language so that he could further develop his skills in the language that would allow him to help others. He decided to take as many courses as he could his first couple of years at WSU so that before he certified into the nursing program, he could do a semester study abroad program in a Spanish-speaking country.

After speaking with a WSU study abroad advisor and after extensive research, he decided on a medical-based program in Costa Rica, where he would study medical Spanish and health sciences. He completed the program this fall.

During his program in Costa Rica, he made sure to interact extensively with the local population and traveled to neighboring countries. He traveled to Panama, Guatemala and Nicaragua, in addition to spending his weekends traveling the Costa Rican countryside.

The experience, he said, was life-changing.

“The biggest thing I would say in going to study abroad was that it shaped my mindset and my perspective,” he said. “Understanding other cultures and people, it can open so many more doors to your future. Through this experience, I developed my communication skills and I was able to better understand other people’s perspectives and ways of doing things.”

Future in the medical field

Fisenko is now working his way through his first year in the WSU nursing program, which he said is preparing him for the rigor of being a nurse.

“The nursing program at WSU is a challenging program, but it is a challenge that pushes you forward,” he said.

Fisenko said he hopes to use his experiences, ranging from his difficulties in migrating to the United States, to learning English and Spanish, to the challenging nursing program at WSU, to his experiences abroad, to one-day help individuals at Kadlec Regional Medical Center as a future nurse. Kadlec, he said, has been his dream employer for years.

“God-willing, I will be there helping, advising and speaking Spanish to help those with medical issues,” he said. “I want to really make a difference. God has blessed me and shaped me into who I am, so I want to use that to bless others.”

By Maegan Murray, ���سԹ�

RICHLAND, Wash. – Adam Halvorsen knows that providing the best possible patient care is crucial in the health field, which is why he is using his degree in nursing from Washington State University Tri-Cities to advocate for better care for patients and for his nursing colleagues across the state.

Halvorsen got involved in advocating for nursing policy as a student at ���سԹ�. Little did he know, his efforts would lead him to become the WSU College of Nursing Outstanding Undergraduate Student this fall.

“It’s been an amazing ride so far,” he said. “I’ve been very humbled by this profession and by my incredible colleagues, and I’m excited to see where it leads me.”

Inspired by service

Halvorsen’s passion for service grew out of his start in the military. The day after 9/11, he signed up for the U.S. Marine Corps and spent four years active-duty with time in Okinawa, Japan, as well as through a tour in Iraq.

“Sept. 11 happened and on Sept. 12, I signed up,” he said. “I saw a need and I went for it. My core philosophy is service. I believe in service to others before self.”

After he left the armed forces, Halvorsen continued his career in service in two jobs: as an emergency management technician for Medstar Ambulance and as a firefighter for the Gallup Fire Department in Gallup, New Mexico. He enjoyed those roles, he said, but he wanted to be a part of the long-term care and recuperation of his patients, rather than just being a part of their initial care in his emergency care roles.

“The thing with nursing is you don’t see a person at their height of being – you see people at their base,” he said. “To be able to be allowed in that moment of their lives and to try to have a positive impact, it is a blessing to be able to do that.”

He enrolled in the ���سԹ� nursing program, which is where he was introduced to opportunities that would allow him to use his passion to better nursing and patient care for Washington state.

Leadership in nursing

In addition to the hands-on training he received from his experienced professors and instructors in the ���سԹ� nursing program, Halvorsen received the opportunity to take on leadership roles within several state nursing organizations.

He served as president of Nursing Students of Washington State. His experience at WSU also led him to serve as part of the Washington State Nurses Association, as well as attend a national conference through the National Student Nurses’ Association. Through these affiliations, Halvorsen had the opportunity to provide input on association policy, expand communication efforts through video, as well as generally advocate for his peers and future colleagues in nursing.

Last year, Halvorsen also joined his WSU peers to represent WSU at Nursing Day at the Capitol in Olympia, which allowed him to interact with prominent government figures to advocate for patient care and speak publically about the importance of nursing education and the nursing profession.

Halvorsen said he hadn’t initially planned on getting involved with these types of leadership roles or that it would lead him earning the WSU College of Nursing Outstanding Undergraduate Student award.

“I honestly didn’t expect it, but I’m honored to represent my incredible peers for the work we have accomplished together,” he said.

Future as a nursing leader��

Halvorsen said the primary reason behind his activism in the nursing field is that he is able to have a positive impact, not only on the current state of health care, but also its future.

“If we could get more students interested in being proactive, not only in policy, but in their communities, we could have a much better impact in nursing, compared with what we think our limits are as student nurses,” he said. “Washington has amazing potential – we have a lot of schools and students out there. There’s an amazing opportunity to grow nursing and help people.”

After graduating this fall, Halvorsen now has the opportunity to exude even more leadership through his role as a director for the National Student Nurse’s Association where he is also head of the ethics and goverance committee for the organization. Additionally, he has accepted a position as a full-time nurse in the cardiac department of the Kadlec Regional Medical Center.

After spending a few years as a full-time nurse, he plans to obtain his doctorate of nursing practice. He hopes to use his career experience and academic credentials to continue with advocacy work and volunteer opportunities. His long-term goal is to work with the American Nursing Association to develop and refine nursing policy.

“It’s been incredible experience so far, both through my education with incredible professors at WSU, in addition to what I’ve been able to participate in through state and national organizations,” he said. “I hope to keep having an impact in nursing so that everyone can benefit.”

Halvorsen said he couldn’t have accomplished his feats without the mentorship he received from the the nurses at WSU, WSNA and those within the NSNA.

“Their guidance and leadership has taught me so much that I will continue to use throughout the rest of my career,” he said.