Transforming McLeod Hall - School of Nursing - University of Virginia

worth noting
Student In Focus
Laura Christine Hobeika (BSN ’11)
In 2005, Laura Hobeika traveled
to South Africa to volunteer with
children orphaned by AIDS. She saw
firsthand the desperate need for
health care providers in developing
countries.
“On the flight home, I realized
my calling,” Hobeika recalls. “I
knew I had to return and work
toward eliminating the suffering I’d
witnessed.”
At UVA, Hobeika found the
perfect way to share her passion.
She led two medical service trips
to the small village of Kpando in
Ghana, West Africa, one through the
Alternative Spring Break program.
The groups she led volunteered at
local clinics and administered HIV/
malaria testing, wound care, and
Laura Hobeika maintains strong ties to the children she met at the health education in the surrounding
HardtHaven Children’s Home in Ghana.
communities.
“On my second trip, my friends
and I took a three-year-old girl
named Mary under our wing. We stayed with her in the hospital for three days after she tested
positive for malaria and HIV,” Hobeika remembers. “Her transformation was amazing. When
she first arrived, Mary was so malnourished she could barely stand, yet by the end of the
week she was smiling and playing with the other kids.”
Mary temporarily stayed at the HardtHaven Children’s Home—an orphanage for children
affected by the HIV epidemic. It’s an organization that Hobeika has developed close ties with,
and one she spent her fourth year raising money to support.
Hobeika plans to return to Ghana after graduating next spring, and her long-term goal is to
start a traveling health clinic in the region. Currently, she’s organizing another trip to Kpando
over the coming winter break. “My hope is that these trips will continue, allowing more UVA
students the chance to be captivated by this amazing town and its inspiring people.”
RAM Draws Faculty and
Students to Service
Nursing faculty and students again stepped
up to care for underserved patients at
the annual RAM (Remote Access Medical)
Clinic held in Wise, Va. This year’s clinic took
place July 23–25. Seven nursing faculty took
part, along with 17 nursing students and 17
medical students. Both faculty and students
found the clinic to be a powerful personal and
learning experience.
“At RAM, students have the opportunity
to work with patients both one-on-one and as
part of an interdisciplinary team,” says Audrey
Snyder (BSN ’89, MSN ’91, ACNP ’98, PhD ’07)
assistant professor of nursing. “They see the
challenges that patients in rural, underserved
areas face in accessing medical, dental, and
vision care. This experience provides an
opportunity to do good, while working sideby-side
with their medical student peers. It
shapes many students’ career choices.”
Nursing faculty and students are also
active partners in the Healthy Appalachia
Institute, a joint venture involving the
University of Virginia and UVA’s College at
Wise. With funding from the National Network
of Public Health Institutes and the Robert Wood
Johnson Foundation, Institute members work
to foster a healthier citizenry in southwest
Virginia. Students in the Healthy Appalachia
Nurse Practitioner Preceptorship Program
spend time serving patients in southwest
Virginia.
“On the flight home, I realized my calling,” Hobeika recalls.
“I knew I had to return and work toward eliminating the
suffering I’d witnessed.”
• 4 Virginia Legacy Fall 2010