The Kristina Chesterman Memorial Clinic

Abstract

Kristina Chesterman, a 21-year-old nursing student, was riding her bike home from the library late on the evening of September 21, 2013, when she was hit by a drunk driver. Gravely injured and left alone by the side of the road when the driver fled the scene, Kristina survived her injuries long enough to become an organ donor, saving the lives of those who received her heart, liver, kidneys, and pancreas. Throughout her life Kristina was committed to helping others, and one of her plans was to travel to Africa to provide care for medically underserved populations. A multidisciplinary team has come together in her honor to establish the Kristina Chesterman Memorial Clinic (KCMC) in rural southeastern Nigeria. The purpose of the project is to establish a healthcare clinic that will honor Kristina’s ambitions by improving access to medical care for the residents of Ozu Abam, Abia State, Nigeria, and the surrounding regions. The KCMC will focus its efforts on the provision of evidence-based healthcare for the patients it serves, as well as offering evidence-based education for American nursing students and Nigerian healthcare providers. The focus of this Doctor of Nursing Practice project was the completion of the first phase of establishing the KCMC. The phase consisted of organizing the multidisciplinary implementation team, fundraising, and beginning the construction of the clinic. As a result of these activities, groundbreaking for the clinic took place in January 2015 and the clinic plans to open its doors to patients in January 2016, providing care for women, children and individuals suffering from diabetes mellitus.