Washington Week: Student Voices (O)

BYU nursing professor shares international experience
By Michelle Holt
The Daily Universe (BYU)
05/23/2006

(U-WIRE) PROVO, Utah — Entering the office on the fourth floor of the SWKT, a clinical sense of order permeates even with boxes stacked in the corner. Piles of papers are neatly lined on a desk, and bookshelves are arranged neatly with medical texts accented with little dolls and ornaments of nurses.

"My mother said I became a nurse out of spite," said Elaine Bond, an associate Brigham Young University professor in the department of nursing. She then laughed.

Wearing a scarf around her neck and looking fairly conservative, Bond said her work in helping others has given her insight as she has extended compassion to others.

Good bedside nursing is not only about caring for the illness, but also treating the patient, the family and the entire situation — spiritual and emotional needs, Bond said.

She has applied this philosophy while responding to the Pentagon disaster of Sept. 11, 2001, working with the people of Jordan, and dealing with the death of her husband.

"I love nursing because it is a recognition of a way to provide service," she said.

Bond said her mother felt she became a nurse to spite her because her grandmother, who too was a nurse, was often away from the home.

Her grandmother was the principal health-care provider to families in rural Utah, opening her home to country doctors. The doctors would then leave her the responsibility of managing the patient's recovery.

Beyond what her mother felt, Bond said, she became a nurse to teach and serve. Service has become a natural extension of nursing for Elaine as she has taught thousands at BYU and around the world.

Teaching students about critical thinking, problem solving and prioritization in a crisis or trauma situation is one of Elaine's passions, said Amy Distelhorst, a former student of Bond's who now works at John Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore.

This passion to educate others continues, as she will return to Jordan this summer to begin the first doctoral nursing program at the University of Jordan. She will be there until the end of the year.

Bond also plans to help the Jordan Nursing Council improve the image of nursing in the country, according to a news release by the BYU College of Nursing.

"She's probably one of the most intelligent and knowledgeable nurses of critical care," said Amber Leck, a BYU nursing graduate. "Her way of teaching is better than any textbook as she has had so much experience."

Bond will return to Jordan again, not only as a visiting professor, but also as a 2006 Fulbright Scholar.

The Fulbright program gives a monetary award to professionals in all fields to "increase mutual understanding between people of the United States and the people of other countries," according to the Fulbright program.

For the past six years Bond has traveled to and from Jordan and the Middle East working at the University of Jordan. "She taught us how to love and serve the Jordan people," Distelhorst said of her prior experience as a BYU student with Bond in Jordan. "It's in her blood, and she taught us that you have to have compassion while solving major problems."

What adds credibility to Bond's impressive resume of not only holding a doctorate in nursing science and specialized training, is her personal experience in dealing with the loss of her best friend.

In the spring of last year, Bond was in Jordan training medical professionals in neonatal resuscitation, in a program sponsored by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. While working, she received the unexpected and shocking news that her husband had just suffered a major stroke.

As she made the 21-hour journey back to the United States, her eight children gathered in Utah around her husband, Hal, at the hospital.

Because of Bond's extensive experience with helping families in traumatic situations to find comfort in death, she and Hal had already prepared for what to do if they were ever in a situation that required a life-or-death decision.

"As I have shared some of those experiences with my husband, our determination has been 'We're not going there;' we're not going through some of that ugly stuff of holding on in the face of no hope," Bond said. "And if either of us is ever in a position where it is not good, we are going to say it is time."

As Bond arrived at the hospital, she was grateful to feel the spirit of family as her and Hal's children, a blended family, surrounded them. She then spoke to Hal for the first time since the stroke. He was completely paralyzed but was still able to communicate through nodding his head yes or no and mouthing words.

From that conversation, the Spirit, Bond said, again validated their prior agreement that was made through fasting and prayer several years ago. They decided to remove the ventilator tube.

Leck said she remembers Bond's face as she recounted this experience to the students in her critical care lecture class when they were discussing death and dying. What moved Leck, and her fellow nursing students to tears, was the intimate experience that Bond and Hal had in their last moments together.

"When the ventilator tube was taken out, Elaine told us that she expected at least an hour before he would pass," Leck said. "But immediately his vitals started dropping. Elaine then said that she started yelling at everyone in the room to get out, get out. She then did the most beautiful thing, she crawled into bed with her husband and held him until he died."

"When you have trauma, it is not a smooth transition; it's not expected," Bond said. "It's a sudden disruption to everyone's life. It was the hardest thing that I had ever done in my life, and I have done some pretty hard things. But again, it was a tremendous spiritual experience."

Since Hal's death, Jordan has become a place of healing for Bond. She refers to Jordan as her other home and its people as her other family.

"I love the kind, warm, hospitable Jordanian people and am honored to do my part to help them," she said.

"Everything that I have done related to Jordan we [Elaine and Hal] have said that it is God's will," she said. "This is the way thing s are supposed to be."

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