All eyes on the road
May 10, 2008
Jennifer Brown
SPECIAL TO THE STAR
Providing health care out of the back of a transport truck can present some challenges. But for two CNIB nurses, the first hurdle was learning how to drive the big rig.
"It's almost half the reason I signed on – it sounded like a lot of fun," says Alison Walker, 31, a Sudbury nurse serving her second year on the mobile Eye Van operated by the Canadian National Institute for the Blind.
For the past 37 years, the CNIB Eye Van has travelled across Northern Ontario from mid-March to mid-November. Staffed by two full-time registered nurses and one of 20 visiting ophthamologists (who meet the nurses at the community), the fully equipped eye-care clinic covers more than 6,000 kilometres, visits 30 communities and treats about 5,000 patients per year.
Accompanying Walker is fellow nurse and co-driver Darla Pfahler, 47, from Red Deer, Alta. She's been with the program so long (six years) that she recently became the first Eye Van nurse ever to requalify her ``Z'' licence so she could keep driving the rig.
The nurses get their driver training through Manitoulin Transport in Sudbury, which considers the $5,000 cost a donation to the CNIB. The company also sends out a more experienced driver whenever the nurses face extreme weather conditions.
Most of the time they seem to manage. "I've driven on some pretty hairy days in the past," Pfahler says. "There have been some days where truck drivers have told me the road up ahead is icy. I've seen a lot of vehicles off the road and it's scary when you're driving in that."
The nurses must adapt to life on the road.
"We stay in hotels and bed and breakfasts along the way," Pfahler says, in an interview from the Moose Motel in Smooth Rock Falls, a 5 1/2-hour drive from Sudbury. "And the odd cabins sometimes. Those are always a treat for us because we can cook ourselves a meal."
The nurses take four weeks of vacation throughout the nine-month program, both to reconnect with family and to get off the road for a while.
Walker is married and her husband lives in Sudbury. "Darla tells patients I don't like him very much, but that's just not true," she laughs. "He travels for his work a lot, too, so this works out quite well for us."
Pfahler is single and says she loves the lifestyle and finds the work rewarding.
She recalls one 13-year-old boy who was diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa during a visit to the van. Over the years, he and his family have revisited the Eye Van. He currently has about 10 per cent of his vision, which will continue to decrease.
"I feel we gave the family a lot of hope for the future," Pfahler says. "We were able to connect him with CNIB and he has a lot of visual aids now that he didn't have access to before. He's legally blind, (so) the family can get access to low-vision aids at a discount.
"He is in a regular school with an assistant and things are going well for the family. He even approached us last year and asked us if he could drive a car."
Walker recalls a patient who was diagnosed with cancer in the back of his eye a few years ago by one of the Eye Van doctors – a condition no one else had detected. He had the eye removed but the diagnosis saved his life.
The staff care for about 40 to 50 patients a day, starting at 8 a.m. and not closing until the last patient leaves.
"It depends on the acuity we see during the day," Pfahler says. "We often work an 11-hour shift, that's not unusual."
The youngest patient they've treated was a day-old baby and the oldest was 109. The baby was sent to Ottawa for further assessment, as there was a risk of eye cancer.
"We see many patients who have cataracts, diabetes or glaucoma, and macular degeneration," Pfahler says. "We usually set up near a hospital and get a lot of emergency patients as well.''
The Eye Van services are covered by OHIP, except for patients between the ages of 20 and 64 who visit for routine eye exams.
Walker says this will be her last year on the van, as she'd like to spend more time at home. But Pfahler is staying. Although she often finds the work physically draining, it is always rewarding. And, she notes, her renewed Z licence is good for another five years.
Toronto Star