Union College Prepares for Emergencies
In a unique course, Union students learn about rescue and relief in a global context.
Jeff Joiner
Jeff Joiner helped to start Union College's groundbreaking International Rescue and Relief program, teaching students emergency medical care, disaster management and a range of additional skills. He talks to Spectrum about how the program started and where its graduates are heading.
Question: How did the International Rescue and Relief program get started? What inspired it?
Answer: When I first arrived at Union College in the summer of 2001, I had developed the concept for a new major in Disaster Management. It would have been offered out of the Division of Health Sciences with a heavy complement of Business and Behavioral Science courses. This concept did not gain much traction at the time and I concentrated on the Nursing Program instead.
Two years later when Michael Duehrssen, a Union alumnus, approached Malcolm Russell, Union’s vice president for academic administration, with his concept for a new degree I was very interested. I dug out my Disaster Management concept file from 2001 and we incorporated these elements into the program that eventually became Union’s International Rescue and Relief Program.
Officially approved as a Bachelor of Science in international rescue and relief, the program was launched in August 2004 with 32 students declaring IRR as their major. With 77 students now enrolled, the major combines rescue and survival skills, emergency medical care, humanitarian relief, public health, disaster management and multicultural service training.
The program was designed for the adventurous young person who desires to dedicate his or her life to the service of others for Jesus’ sake.
Question: What kind of background do you have that made you want to start such a program?
Answer: I have over 25 years experience in Emergency Nursing. I have worked in small ERs and large trauma centers. I didn’t take my first mission trip until 1997 – an Ultimate Workout (sponsored by Insight magazine & Maranatha Volunteers International) to El Salvador. On this trip I realized that while many health care professionals want to provide assistance on short-term mission trips, most of us don’t have a lot of training or experience in how to carry this out.
I had grown up being active in the Boy Scouts and later in Pathfinders and had spent most of my professional life practicing in rural areas, so I was very comfortable providing care in remote settings.
I made several contacts and began the process of developing a course to familiarize nurses with the skills and knowledge they needed to work in developing countries. I relied heavily on Laura Nyirady’s course that she developed at Southern Adventist University. (Laura is now at Loma Linda University’s School of Nursing.) I have continued to develop and refine the course, which is now offered at Union College as Frontier Nursing.
Since 1997, I have participated in several Ultimate Workout mission trips in Central and South America. I have served as the medical outreach coordinator for the last few years with Steve Case’s ministry Involve Youth (formerly Piece of the Pie) on the Ultimate Workout mission trips.
I serve on the board of directors for the Tasba Raya Adventist Mission (TRAM) in Francia Sirpi, Nicaragua. I have led trips to Nicaragua over spring break for Union College nursing students for the last five years. We work with TRAM to provide village health care to the Miskito Indians of the Tasba Raya region of the northeastern portion of the country.
Question: How many majors does the program have so far? Do non-majors also take some of the classes?
Answer: We began the 2007-2008 school year with over 125 International Rescue and Relief majors. Some of the courses are available to non-IRR majors - the HIV & Emerging Diseases and Disaster Management & Terrorism courses have been taken by non-IRR majors each year.
Question: What kind of training are the students required to undergo? Is it focused in the medical field? Is the training physical as well as academic?
Answer: This program is an emergency medical technician (EMT)-based program that includes certifications in several aspects of rescue skills (high angle or technical rope rescue, swift water & confined space) and survival (wilderness, jungle, ocean & shoreline).
This is the foundation; on this foundation we layer coursework in language, business, small group dynamics, public health, world religions and cultures, crisis management, HIV and emerging diseases, disaster management, global communications, relief infrastructure and more. It has grown to include seven areas of emphasis: project development, human service and counseling, business, communications, global missions, pre-professional, and paramedic.
This is a unique major because it includes many courses that have physical demands that are not seen in most classes. Students are taught to conduct safe technical rope rescues from varying heights, to rescue individuals in multiple settings involving fast-flowing and deep water. These classes place physical demands on students that require they be in good shape.
Question: What kind of experience do the teachers in the program have?
Answer: Michael Duehrssen, the director of the program, graduated from Union College in 1984 with a biology degree and earned a degree in medicine from Loma Linda University in 1989. He has worked extensively in emergency medicine. He was previously a competitive downhill skier.
Associate director Doug Tallman earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in religion and an applied theology minor from Southern Adventist University in 1977. He earned a master’s from the same university with an emphasis in teacher outdoor education.
With more than 25 years of experience as an educator, Tallman has worked as a boys’ dean in three Adventist academies and taught Bible classes in five academies.
Tallman has coordinated and traveled with many student groups for short-term mission trips around the world to places such as Honduras, Mexico and the Dominican Republic.
Question: What main career paths do you see for graduates of this program? What major employers will seek out the graduates?
Answer: Career paths are wide open for International Rescue and Relief graduates. About 25% of our students are choosing the pre-professional emphasis that will lead to medical or dental school or Union’s Physician Assistant graduate program. Many are taking the paramedic emphasis – currently we have students who are completing this portion of their education at colleges in Nebraska, Colorado and even Alaska.
Many, if not most, international aid agencies require a graduate degree for international employment; so International Rescue and Relief students who choose to work internationally usually will need to obtain a graduate degree in an applicable field. The IRR program provides an excellent undergraduate foundation and skill set to build a graduate education on.
Domestically, IRR graduates may seek employment in the Emergency Medical Service or Emergency Management industry at the local, state or federal level.
As the Emergency Management field develops, the majority of positions will be in the private sector. Potential employment opportunities are available with the US Forest and US National Park services along with the American Red Cross and FEMA. Graduates may also find employment opportunities with the many outdoor education or outdoor adventure vendors in the US. This major prepares students to enter a vast variety of potential fields – I think we will be amazed to see where their career interests take the students.
See the IRR website for potential employers http://irr.ucollege.edu/data/?page_id=17 for more information.
Question: How closely did you work with ADRA when developing the program?
Answer: Initial contacts were made with ADRA, USAID, FEMA, World Vision, AFM, and AWA. We looked at their employment opportunities and spoke to their human resource professionals. At ADRA, Mike Duehrssen and I met with Derris Krause, Bureau Chief/Human Resources and James Lanning, Director for Acquisitions at the Disaster Preparedness & Response Bureau.
From talking to Mr. Krause we understood that ADRA does not really even advertise for individuals who do not hold a graduate degree; many, if not most, ADRA positions require a doctoral degree for consideration. But with that said, he agreed that the IRR program was an ideal undergraduate foundation for students who wished to seek future positions with ADRA.
All IRR students who state a desire for future employment or service with ADRA, World Vision or any other international aid agency are told up front that they must plan on obtaining a graduate degree upon completion of the IRR program.
We spoke to ADRA division directors from Southeast Asia and Central and South America. They helped us define skills and courses to add to our base foundation. The EMT/rescue skills are seen for what they are – a basic foundation that they all felt was useful at the field level. By no means did this reflect a feeling that these were the only the skill sets that would be useful for a project director.
Our human services & counseling emphasis was developed after direct involvement with the senior leadership at World Vision. This is not a replacement for a graduate degree in counseling, but the solid undergraduate base that would better prepare a counselor/project manager for service in a developing country according to leadership at World Vision. One of our first graduates in IRR/human services and counseling is in fact in a counseling graduate program now.
Question: Union College advertises the International Rescue and Relief program as being the only one of its kind. Why wouldn’t other universities offer such a course?
Answer: One of the key factors that make this program unique is that it is an undergraduate program that is based on an EMT rescuer at its core. It is very hands-on in the first year or so and it builds in complexity and course work throughout the program. Another key difference is that students spend one semester abroad actually studying and providing community/public health and humanitarian aid in a developing country.
Union’s IRR program is the only four year degree in international relief that has been reviewed and listed on FEMA’s Higher Education Project. Union College was only the 11th academic program to have been listed by FEMA in the category of international relief. All of the other programs are major research universities whose programs offer either post-graduate certificates, masters or doctoral degrees in this specialty.
There are many colleges and universities that offer undergraduate and graduate programs in disaster or emergency management, but no other programs have the international experience component.
Question: Your students have worked in Nicaragua and in Venezuela. Can you tell us a little more about those programs?
Answer: IRR students spend the spring semester (January to May) in a developing country. Here they take additional courses in Public Health, Travel & Tropical Medicine, Jungle, Ocean & Shoreline Survival, and Emergency Care. Students work with physicians, nurses, instructors and national healthcare providers to provide health care in various settings to the indigenous people of these regions.
In spring of 2008, Dr. Mike Duehrssen led a group to Honduras. They spent time in the islands and on the mainland working with several different organizations. They worked with a local government to develop a community disaster response plan and also provided training and updates for multiple local EMS agencies. They conducted village health care for hundreds of individuals in different towns and villages.
In the spring of 2007, Dr. Duehrssen led a group to Venezuela with the invitation of the Amerindians (Davis Indians) of the Gran Sabana region. This was the third year that Mike had worked with this group in Venezuela. They worked in cooperation with an Adventist airbase and several villages for their training.
While the Union nursing program has traveled to Nicaragua for several years to provide healthcare to the Miskito Indians of the Tasba Raya region, PA student were included for the first time in 2008. The IRR program is actually looking to include this region in 2009 along with Honduras.
Dr. Duehrssen and I just returned from a trip to Nicaragua to meet with the Ministry of Health officials in Managua and Puerto Cabezas, Adventist Church officials, Tasba Raya Adventist Mission board members, and administrators at COVINIC (the SDA university in Managua), paving the way for the IRR team to spend a portion of spring of 2009 in Nicaragua.
Question: Is the health work you do there connected to Adventist mission programs?
Answer: Yes, it is. In Venezuela we were affiliated with the Adventist aviation program in the Gran Sabana. In Honduras, Dr. Duehrssen partnered with several Adventist ministries – an orphanage, hospital, academy and the Honduran Mission. In Nicaragua, we are meeting this summer with the Tasba Raya Adventist Mission clinic in Francia Sirpi, the Nicaraguan Mission administration and the Nicaraguan Ministry of Health (MINSA) officials in that region to finalize plans for next school year.
Question: How do you find time to direct the Nursing Program and Chair the Division of Health Sciences, as well as work with the International Rescue and Relief program?
Answer: I don’t – which is why we have just hired a new administrative director for the IRR Program. John Thomas from Maxwell Academy will be joining the IRR staff later this summer. John has a rich history in academic administration and international ministry and I look forward to having him join our team.
Question: How do you see international aid work and the philosophy around aid changing?
Answer: I met with an official from USAID toward the end of 2007 in Washington, DC. One of the initiatives that USAID is working on is developing project coordinators to provide community and professional EMS education in Community Emergency Response Training in Central and South America.
There are several NPO and NGO attempting to get these programs off of the ground as we speak. They were very encouraged to see that this project was one we had already lined up to initiate this semester in Honduras. The developing countries of Central and South America (as well as Asia) are quickly developing EMS programs, even in their more rural areas. They are seeking international agencies to assist them in providing the training required for their citizens and EMS professionals.
Unfortunately, very few NPOs or NGOs have any staff with expertise in these areas. This opportunity is expected to grow for quite awhile. Our program has experience in just this type of project and we are continuing to partner with local EMS agencies and municipal governments in developing countries to assist them in formulating or enhancing community response plans and disaster preparation training for their residents.
Question: If the philosophy around aid work is moving more toward empowering governments to help their own people, what place do you see for your students?
Answer: There will always be a need to have professionals available to initially provide the training so that national, indigenous agencies can help their own populations. Somebody has to train the trainers.
Also, as we have recently seen in numerous cases, there will always be a point in which individual nations cannot respond to their own needs fast enough with enough resources. Other nations will have to step up and assist. These are known as catastrophic events – when a nation cannot respond to its own disaster. Someone will have to be ready to go.
Question: In light of the recent exclusion of aid workers in the aftermath of the cyclone in Burma, or Myanmar, what kinds of obstacles are you preparing your students to overcome?
Answer: This is one of the issues covered in some our senior level courses – how do you respond in difficult or impossible situations? How can you as a Christian respond in a non-Christian nation/environment? How can you maintain your personal Christian perspective while working professionally for a non-Christian agency?
There are not a lot of easy answers, just a lot of hard questions. Our program attempts to provide the students with the background and tools to apply critical thinking and innovative solutions to these situations on their own and make the Christ-centered call.
The program’s unofficial mantra is “Improvise, Adapt & Overcome”, while the official motto is “A career of adventure, a lifetime of service”. Union College believes that IRR graduates will be prepared to answer God’s call for professionals to serve mankind in diverse situations throughout the world.
Search
- frank7 on Pacific Press® publishes “Character of God Controversy”
- Scott Arany on Hollywood Church Celebrates Faith and Arts
- Donna Haerich on Pacific Press® publishes “Character of God Controversy”
- rc on Pacific Press® publishes “Character of God Controversy”
- Heather M May on Abortion: Is Required Parental Notification a Good Idea?
- Sirje on Pacific Press® publishes “Character of God Controversy”
- Shubee on Pacific Press® publishes “Character of God Controversy”
- Tom Zwemer on Born of a Woman—Atonement and the Incarnation
- Heather M May on Abortion: Is Required Parental Notification a Good Idea?
- Shubee on Pacific Press® publishes “Character of God Controversy”
User login
© Copyright 2008 Adventist Forums 
Comments
Sounds like an interesting program with many ways to go after graduating - although like all areas the graduates should expect to move into entry-level positions rather than have some naive expectation of being able to jump over that step.
I wonder a little at the "Many are taking the paramedic emphasis" career path. I am a National Registry of Emergency Medical Technicians Paramedic, and know how little paramedics earn, and what the normal paths into this career are.
If the students get their NREMTP from the program, they will be competing with students who specialized in that field, and with others who are coming in from intensive 1 year courses. If they have to go on and do a further year of study before they can sit for the NREMTP certification...
Many paramedics are actively trying to get the training to move on to physician's assistant, nurse, doctor, because the income is low - one article I was reading recently described a community where the 911 paramedics were getting the legal minimum wage.
I also note that most countries are moving to employing nationals rather than bringing in expensive overseas people. Indeed their problem is rarely training their people - it is getting them to stay after they are trained. I was recently in Malawi. There are more Malawi-trained doctors in individual cities in England than there are in all of Malawi.
Lastly the idea that a young inexperienced US person with an undergraduate degree can move into rural Central America and get a whole community-based EMS system off the ground is a little optimistic.
/Bevin
I was a bit taken aback by ADRA's statement that candidates for jobs there basically require a PhD. I find that a overly restrictive. I know 2 former country directors in Africa, one who spent a bit over a year in Mozambique and the other who was country director in Angola for several years. Neither of them had PhD's, as far as I know. Mario Oliveira, the former country director for Angola, is now the liaison between ADRA and the European Union.
It's a far cry from the day in 1931 when my Grandfather and Grandmother boarded a boat for Angola with their medical and nursing degrees, a couple of kids and practically nothing else. Now there are multi million dollar projects with multi-national infrastructure, multiple layers of management and countries dictating where aid can and can't go. The romance is gone.
On my way back from Malawi I read a book titled
"Africa Doesn't Matter
How the West Has Failed the Poorest Continent and What We Can Do About It"
The author has a lot of experience with aid to Africa - and what it does and does not do.
The book could be summarized as saying we should (a) stop actively subsidizing things that damage Africa, and (b) choose those African countries where the help is needed and won't get diverted by corruption, and feed the cash directly into their budgets over many years.
Sending goods such as food actively damages their local economies by forcing farmers off the land - sending US grown heavily subsidized cotton is even worse. Sending people to do jobs the locals can do is just as bad.
Didn't you always wonder about programs like "Ultimate Workout" where the participants spend more on their airline tickets than it would have cost the locals to buy the supplies and hire local workers? Such programs are great for the travellers - my kids really benefitted from going - but they are not an efficient way of achieving the local end result.
/Bevin
Sound like a great idea. However, for a career path, I would suggest the program be open for Associate Degree R.N.'s with the following two years leading to a B. S. in language, business, group dynamics, governmental structures etc. There should be at least an 8 week summer as externs in the field.
The Track should be compatable with advancement into a M.S. in Public Health etc. Tom
I work at Union College, so naturally I'm more than a little prejudiced. I know the IRR students and faculty and I think they're great. Jeff could have gone on much longer about career paths, which seems to be the focus of the comment discussion so far, but you pick and choose what to focus on in an article.
The IRR major has eight emphasis students choose from in addition to the core curriculum. This enables students to integrate it into different fields as double majors or be prepared for graduate school and careers in that area. These are: business, communication, human services and counseling, project development, paramedic, pre-physician's assistant and pre-professional (basically pre-med or pre-dental).
The IRR graduates who applied to medical school from our first graduating class this year both were accepted at Loma Linda and at least the one I've heard from to felt more than prepared for his classes and already has much more training in dealing with patients than his classmates. Union has a great history of preparing students for medical school and the IRR students take the same science classes as our biology/pre-med students in addition to their experiences in jungle clinics. That's why I call it our hardest major: graduates are able to both climb mountains and perform well on the MCAT.
Since students are certified EMTs by the end of their freshman year, some get jobs working as first responders to help pay for college. I knew one student who had been a firefighter before enrolling worked as a paramedic while at Union. He had found that to get a promotion to fire chief he would need a college degree. The chiefs he knew didn't have degrees related to their jobs, so he was happy to find a college that could prepare him for his career goals.
One group who have gravitated to Union because of the IRR major is missionary kids, people who already have experience living cross culturally and without modern conveniences. My student worker is a great example; his parents were mission doctors in Africa until recently. He plans to return to mission work after completing medical school and found the IRR major fit more closely with his goals and his family's experience than a traditional pre-med track.
So, IRR majors have a lot of options, some of which could lead to high-paying jobs if they choose them, and all of which lead to very satisfying service-oriented careers. It's certainly not the right program for everyone, and I personally wouldn't have chosen it (I was an English and history major), but for the students who come to Union for IRR, it really is a challenging and often fun program that meets the life goals they've set.
students are certified EMTs by the end of their freshman year... one student who had been a firefighter before enrolling worked as a paramedic
There are the following levels of Nationally Registered EMT...
First responder
Nationally Registered EMT-Basic
Nationally Registered EMT-Intermediate
Nationally Registered EMT-Paramedic
at about
FR: 40 hours
Basic:120 hours classroom
Intermediate:additional 120 hours classroom
Paramedic: additional 400+ hours classroom, plus a lot more ambulance and in-hospital practical time
It is certainly possible your firefighter was a paramedic, but it is possible he was one of the other levels instead.
The 1-year paramedic program I took basically dominated all my non-work, non-sleep time for over a year. Family, house maintenance, recreation, ... all went by the wayside
These are: business, communication, human services and counseling, project development, paramedic, pre-physician's assistant and pre-professional (basically pre-med or pre-dental).
Sounds like a nice path into the areas I didn't touch on - my only comment about paramedic really is 'this is an expensive way into a poorly paying area', and around the overseas stuff is 'this area is changing fast - beware'
/Bevin
Thank you all for the clarifications. Tom
For a career looking to the future, nothing surpasss nursing. It is projected to be No. 1 in demand as far in the future as can be seen, depending on the extended lifespan of people today.
With a two-year degree, R.N. eligible, the starting salary rivals anything today. Advancing further, a 4-yr. B.S. in nursing allows one to advance further, and a nurse practitioner can expect to earn up to six-figures with a few years' practice. High demand in a career that is following the Christian command to help those in need is one of the finest. With two daughters, both with an R.N.+ RDH (Registered Dental Hygienist) and one also having the FNP (Family nurse practitioner qualifications), it's an ideal career for one who likes working with people rather than machines.
Elaine
This year alone the number of 4-year, post-secondary school, BSN graduates of our six Adventist schools of nursing in Philippines who took the national boards are as follows: 330, 152, 135, 313, 198, and 78. More than half of them, if they haven't done so yet, will also most likely soon take the US-NCLEX.
Many
I have followed with great interest the IRR program since it began in 2001. And it seems to me that with all new programs there are "bumps in the road" to overcome. I suspect it is hard to compete in the long-time programs such as history, chemistry, medicine and the like...those programs have been around forever! But I see this program as innovative and forward thinking and it's interesting to see how additional training has been added, international learning is being implemented, and a wonderful opportunity is being given to those students who don't want to be nurses, preachers or teachers! So I say a resounding AMEN to those who have taken their time, their skills and thought "outside the box" to bring new life to the education world.
I am delighted to see many options available to the IRR students as they move forward in their education and I can see how well IRR opens up many fields and appreciate the fact that mission matters! Service to others, decisions to work for Christ, how cool! I'm sure that MORE MONEY is there to be made in other professions but money "sure ain't everything..." Blessings to those who have worked so tirelesly to bring the IRR program to fruition.
330, 152, 135, 313, 198, and 78 (total=1006) alumni of our 4- year, post-secondary school BSN programs in Philippine Adventist schools of nursing this year alone are meeting an international shortage in developed countries such as the US. (An aside: As a group, nurses provide the major financial contributions to Ethnic congregations in North America.)
How true is the demand for IRR alumni? Is Union College simply creating awareness of a need for them? An objective evaluation requires at least a 10-year period of observation in regards to their job placement and job satisfaction. I do appreciate Bevin's input and I agree with his comments.
The IRR students in my classes at Union are best described as "doers." They go full-on after their goals. The past week they drove all night to assist victims of Hurricane Ike in Texas. This morning their extracurricular efforts were featured on the front page of the Lincoln Journal Star, prime real estate normally reserved for Husker football.
Frankly, the IRR program has done its homework, is refining as it goes, and looks forward with hope and promise to a bright future. I'm proud of it--as I am of Ultimate Workout, which has changed hundreds of young people's lives in redemptive, Spirit-led ways.
I recognize that the world needs its share of bean counters and naysayers, but you won't find them in this major.
Hoo-ray.
I'm impressed by the program's PR value which, according to the above account, is in the same league with football. Let us know 10 years after the first group have graduated regarding placement and job satisfaction.
Interesting to read of a similar course to the one I established in the BA degree at Avondale College back in 1999 when I taught there. This program is a BA major in international development rather than relief / emergency response activities and was designed in consultation with ADRA Australia. The program requires a brief exposure to an ADRA office in a developiong country. While having much more modest numbers than the Union program, graduates have worked with various ADRAs in Asia and Africa and many have gone on to study for a masters in development at a sate university. ADRA Australia offers a two-year internship program for the BA graduates from the Avondale and similar courses. Currently in my role as the international program director for ADRA Australia I have three former Avondale international development students in my team. Graduates of the program do need to realise that in many of the Asian ADRAs many of the senior staff are local persons with masters degrees in development and of course are not nearly as costly to employ as an expatriate. A timely reminder that the aid sector requires highly skilled and experienced persons.
Harwood or someone with ADRA experience
Would you mind responding to the claim that ADRA requires a doctoral degree for most positions? Unless these are physicians and dentists, if there's a need for them, I'm not sure if the above assertion is true or not.
International development, in my mind, is distinct from IRR. ID is an established academic program, so perhaps some IRR alumni may wish to continue with ID.
"International development is also distinct from, though conceptually related to, disaster relief and humanitarian aid. While these two forms of international support seek to alleviate some of the problems associated with a lack of development, they are most often short term fixes - they are not necessarily long-term solutions. International development, on the other hand, seeks to implement long-term solutions to problems by helping developing countries create the necessary capacity needed to provide such sustainable solutions to their problems. A truly sustainable development project is one which will be able to carry on indefinitely with no further international involvement or support, whether it be financial or otherwise.
"International development projects may consist of a single, transformative project to address a specific problem or a series of projects targeted at several aspects of society."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_development
Joselito
From my expereince working in ADRA Australia, I am unaware of a doctoral degree being required for work with ADRA, at least in our partner ADRAs across the South Pacific, Asia and a couple of Southern Africa countries. I do know of two Asian ADRAs that have recently each had a PhD expatriate though in one case the doctorate was not in international development. As mentioned in my initial post, several of the Asian ADRAs have many senior, national staff with masters in development/social work or similar.
You are correct in stating that ID and IRR are distinct though closely related and with large scale disasters the IRR will (or at least should) transition into ID. The Asian tsunami experience is a classic example where in Indonesia in particular the IRR has long since finished but the ID will continue for some years yet.
Post new comment