Healing beyond borders

By traveling to the Dominican Republic and Guatemala this semester, Alyssa Bailey Henson ’23, DNP ’26, got to broaden her cultural connections, complete half her required clinical hours toward her Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) and improve the lives and health of the communities she served – all in just 18 days. 

“I live in Florida now, so I had the choice of traveling back to North Carolina to do my clinical rotations or traveling abroad. I decided I’d rather travel outside the country,” Henson shared. “All nursing makes a difference for patients, but in the places I traveled, the care we provided literally changed lives.”

Henson's travels were made possible through the Global Representatives Grant from the William and Robert Shuford Center for International Education. This grant offered her additional funding by sharing the digital story of her experience – specifically through the photos accompanying this story and appearing on social media. Henson spent the first eight days of her journey in the Dominican Republic with Solid Rock International, an Indiana-based non-profit that has led relief work there since 1992 and operates a clinic in San Juan de la Maguana. 

“This was my third year in a row going to the Dominican Republic, but my first year on the team doing community care,” said Henson. “Nurses either serve on the surgical team that operates in the clinic or a barrio team that travels out into the country to serve patients where they live. I’ve usually been in surgery as a nurse.”

Working alongside a physician specializing in pediatric and neonatal care, Henson traveled around the region providing check-ups and medications for children.

“I also sponsor a student in the Dominican Republic – I pay her tuition to attend a private Christian school – and I got to meet her and her mom for the first time,” Henson shared. “We write letters back and forth, and she sends me drawings. It was really special to see her in person. Then I have a lot of families I’ve connected with on past visits, so every night I was invited to dinner with these different families. It was just a beautiful experience to connect with so many different people.”

Henson shared that her first trip to the Dominican Republic in 2019 inspired her to become a nurse.

“My grandmother is an anesthetist at Frye Hospital in Hickory, but she also leads one of the teams in the Dominican Republic,” she explained. “When I joined them in 2019, I had just started at LR and declared nursing as my major, but I wasn’t completely sure it was the right path for me. Working alongside the nurses on that trip confirmed my decision, and I plan to continue this work because it’s what inspired me to enter the profession.”

 From the Dominican Republic, Henson flew directly to Guatemala, where she spent another 10 days working with All In Guatemala – an organization with longstanding connections to Lenoir-Rhyne’s nursing program that partners with the Guatemalan organization Salud y Paz (“health and peace”) to provide essential services to Indigenous communities in the Guatemalan highlands.

“I mainly worked with women’s health in Guatemala because it was my clinical rotation for my degree, but the medical teams cover every need. We also had a dental team and an eyeglass station – they try to include as much as possible because in these remote areas, people might go years between doctor visits,” Henson explained.

While her clinical assignments in pediatrics and women’s health were coincidental, Henson brought with her a special appreciation for the care she was providing in these specialties. She and her husband – who she met at LR during her first week on campus – are expecting their first child in July.

“It was challenging. My legs were swollen and I got nauseous traveling around the mountains. And you don’t have the conveniences that we’re used to in America,” she shared. “But the women who live there, who we were caring for – that’s their experience. It gave me more understanding for them and also for my own strength.”

Henson also observed how providing care and comfort for people who needed it made the journey worthwhile.

“For example, we removed the adenoids and tonsils of a girl who had Down syndrome. Everybody was afraid to touch her. We were able to get her tonsils out and give her some relief from months of pain,” she said. “Seeing these people and being able to help them with medicines and referrals, to give them even a little bit of relief is the best thing.”