Connect

This is the latest installment in our Connect article series “Hope at Work” — showcasing inspiring stories about how our team members contribute to UVA Health’s 10-year Strategic Plan: “One Future Together Health and Hope for All.” No matter where you work, you have an opportunity to inspire hope in others. These stories show how:

Jamie Hicks, RN, MSN, NNP-BC, has worked for UVA Health for almost 25 years. She joined as a bedside nurse at UVA Health Children’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), then became a transport clinician with the Neonatal Emergency Transport System (NETS) team, and finally made what she sees as a logical transition to becoming a neonatal nurse practitioner (NNP) — caring for and saving the lives of our youngest patients. Jamie is also a primary preceptor of NNP students at UVA School of Nursing.

“I became a nurse because the Neonatal ICU was fascinating to me,” Jamie explains. “I wanted to be a part of helping to save very preterm babies and other babies with the need for intensive care. Babies are the most innocent and defenseless of all patients in healthcare.”

‘A Joy and an Honor’

Jamie says when compared to other ICU patients, babies have the highest survival rate — and the greatest potential to live many years after ICU discharge. You don’t have to look far for evidence. “A former neonatologist here at UVA Health was born at 30-weeks gestation, and a former NICU nurse here at UVA Health was previously a 27-week infant in our own unit,” says Jamie. “You never know who any of the babies we care for might grow up to be!”

And in December 2016, it was for “demonstrating poise, empathy, and professionalism” while treating a baby delivered under “incredibly difficult circumstances” that Jamie earned a DAISY Award via UVA Health University Medical Center’s Nursing Professional Governance Organization. “Jamie’s love and support shines through. It’s a joy and an honor to call her a friend and colleague. She inspires me daily to be better,” praised the nominator.

One UVA Health Team

Fast forward to 2023, when Jamie aspired to volunteer for Catholic Health Initiatives for Uganda (CHIU)’s annual medical mission to the East African nation. Healthcare workers volunteer their time and are responsible for their own expenses such as airfare and lodging, but medications and supplies must be funded by CHIU. CHIU also funds expensive items such as solar panels and water filtration systems to clinics that otherwise, would have no electricity or clean water.

Jamie began fundraising that March with the support of her UVA Health colleagues. She made treats and snacks and placed them in University Medical Center team member break rooms, in exchange for any amount of donations. “I thought maybe I would raise a few hundred dollars,” she recalls.

Well nine months later, expectations were exceeded — she’d raised $11,200 for the medical mission through donations! Jamie says according to the medical mission's travel coordinators, it would’ve been cancelled because of lack of funds — had it not been for Jamie's determination and the generosity of her UVA Health colleagues.

Then in late fall 2023, Jamie scoured the internet for additional funding for the medical mission. She learned DAISY Award winners can apply for up to three DAISY Foundation Medical Mission Grants to help cover their trip expenses. In November 2023, Jamie earned $1,500 toward her airfare and lodging for the medical mission.

An Eye-Opening Experience

In early 2024, Jamie flew 7,000 miles to Uganda to volunteer at St. Anthony's Health Center in Mitala Maria, a village about 35 miles from the capital, Kampala. She joined a group of about two dozen Ugandan healthcare workers to treat more than 1,600 patients from Jan. 15 to 19. “Some receive no other healthcare throughout the year other than what’s provided at this clinic in January,” says Jamie.

Part of her contribution to the mission included teaching a Helping Babies Breathe course developed for birth attendants that teaches the basics of neonatal resuscitation with low-tech simulation dolls. The program doesn't require access to electricity or oxygen to resuscitate babies. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, the Helping Babies Breathe program reduces early neonatal deaths by up to 47 percent, and the rate of babies who would've been declared stillborn by 24 percent.

Jamie also saw children inflicted with a variety of illnesses. Respiratory infections, malaria, burns. It was only the beginning of what would become an eye-opening experience. Adults presented with respiratory infections, HIV, tuberculosis, hypertension, and diabetes. Some of the patients were able to get the tests and treatments they needed, such as for malaria. But the clinic had limited diagnostics and medications to treat all the diseases — and patients couldn’t afford to go anywhere else for help.

Grim Reality

In one case, Jamie examined an 18-month-old toddler with Down Syndrome and symptoms of congenital cardiac disease — very common in children with Down Syndrome. “But this baby had never seen a cardiologist, and his mother — only 19 years old — couldn’t afford to take him to even a general pediatrician. In the United States, the child could’ve been seen and treated regardless of the parents’ ability to pay up front, but in Uganda, the reality is that this baby likely will die of his heart defect because the parents must pay in cash up front, even to just be evaluated by a physician.”

Jamie says the children with cerebral palsy she examined can’t see a developmental pediatrician or receive physical therapy, occupational therapy, orthotics, or even wheelchairs. “This will impact their mobility and quality of life greatly,” she worries. “And almost every child at the clinic had decayed and sometimes bleeding teeth and are unlikely to ever see a dentist.” 

Health and Hope for All

For a week, Jamie was able to deliver hope on the ground — while reaping emotional rewards, and some insights to bring back to her UVA Health colleagues at work.

“This medical mission made me happy to be able to help rural Ugandans and grateful for the seemingly endless resources that we have in the United States. The mission also motivates me to want to be a champion for stewardship — one of our UVA Health ASPIRE values and part of our strategic plan."  

What’s Ahead?

Jamie plans to apply again for a DAISY Foundation Medical Mission Grant so in January 2025 she can travel again with CHIU — this time to Buyoga, Uganda for another medical mission. CHIU rotates among three rural health clinics in the Buganda region of central Uganda: in Mitala Maria, Buyoga, and Kitakyusa.

The biggest fundraiser for the 2025 medical mission is the inaugural Golf Classic, set for Sept. 9, 2024 at Spring Creek Golf Club in Zion Crossroads, Virginia. Jamie points potential event participants or sponsors, or potential donors to the cause, to charitygolftoday.com/catholichealth. 

When it comes to improving the health of those at home or abroad, Jamie quotes cultural anthropologist Margaret Mead: “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has!”