Genia Morse, program coordinator for DeKalb Medical's Wellness on Wheels mobile health clinic, feels fortunate to have found a direction early in her nursing career. A year after earning her nursing degree in 1974, she took a job with the Hôpital Albert Schweitzer, which runs an integrated rural health system for impoverished people in central Haiti.
After administering an immunization shot to Elizabeth Cook, 4, during a stop at the Shallowford Garden Apartments in Doraville, Genia Morse gives her a special balloon.
"For the first six months, I worked in the tetanus intensive care ward, but as my French Creole improved, I was able to go out with the public health team and work in some of the outreach clinics," said Morse, CFNP, MSN. "It made me realize how much I enjoyed working with people who often fall between the cracks of health care."
After that experience, Morse earned her master's degree in community health from the University of Colorado and began working in migrant health care there.
Intrigued by the history and mission of the Frontier Nursing Service in Kentucky, she decided to learn more about it. Morse enrolled in the Frontier School of Midwifery & Family Nursing to become a family nurse practitioner.
"By then, nurses were using Jeeps instead of horses to get back to the remote areas of this coal-mining area. Living over the Texaco station in Hayden, Ky., a town of 500, and learning the Kentucky dialect was like living in a foreign country," Morse said. "They didn't know me, but they welcomed me, because they knew the reputation of the service."
Morse returned to the migrant health care program in Colorado to set up a clinic as a family nurse practitioner.
"I truly loved that work, but eventually my Southern roots brought me back to Atlanta. I realized I was only seeing my folks once a year," she said.
For 10 years, Morse worked with Atlanta's urban poor at Central Health Center at Central Presbyterian Church, until her husband told her about a job opening he thought would interest her. DeKalb Medical in Decatur was equipping a Wellness on Wheels van to provide health care outreach to underserved populations.
"I was in language school in Ecuador to learn Spanish, and he wanted to know if he should apply for me. I said 'yes,' and the job was waiting for me when I got back [in September 1999]," Morse said.
The Wellness on Wheels van travels four days a week, providing free diagnostic screenings and preventive health care to people who need these services. The effort was funded initially by the DMC Foundation, but the hospital now pays for the six-member staff, which comprises Morse, community health nurse Patricia Deas, program director Janet Rizan, office coordinator Robertina Monts, office assistant Yolanda Amaro and Doahn Le, the driver and medical assistant. Among them, the staff members speak English, Spanish, Vietnamese and French.
"When we started, we tried to serve as many neighborhoods as possible, but now we focus on the areas of greatest need," Morse said. "We go to specific spots — where people know we will be — and work in partnership with Refugee Family Services. When we arrive, there are usually 20 people waiting in line. We get patients through word-of-mouth, and the numbers keep going up and up and up."
The staff provides vaccinations, immunizations and tests, including 800 mammograms last year, thanks to grants from the Susan G. Komen Foundation and Atlanta's Two-Day Breast Cancer Walk.
"We provide a little primary care, but mostly we try to refer people to their most affordable health care options," Morse said.
Refugees have access to Medicaid for a brief time after they arrive in the United States, she explained, but they often have trouble navigating the health care system after those resources are gone.
"It's wonderful to be able to help someone who doesn't know where to turn, and the appreciation is so great," Morse said.
She still gets birthday and Christmas cards from an Ethiopian family that she helped.
"The mother had liver problems, and the husband and son were working overtime to pay for her $500 medication," she said. "All I did was suggest they try Grady [Memorial Hospital], but it made a huge difference in their lives.
"That's what keeps me here. Haiti made me realize what an incredible privilege it is to serve those who don't always get the services they deserve."
HOW YOU CAN HELP
After eight years, the Wellness on Wheels van is showing its age, so the DeKalb Medical Foundation and hospital employees are raising funds for a new one. Anyone interested in helping should contact the foundation at 404-501-5956 or foundation@dkmc.org.