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VOLUME 20. NUMBER 21
MAY 25, 1973
DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA
Missionary Work in Vietnam
Nursing Grad Helps Vietnamese Refugees
1
HELPING OTHERS HELP THEMSELVES-\^or eight of the past 11 years, Rachel
James, a Baptist missionary in Vietnam, has ministered to the medical needs of
Vietnamese refugees in Saigon and outerlying districts. Rachel has done most of her
work at chapel clinics, which she helped to establish, and has taken care of, on any
given day, as many as 100 to 120 refugee patients. A 1958 graduate of the School of
Nursing, Rachel and her family will return to Vietnam in June, after spending two
years back home in Durham.
Duke To tmplemenf New
Clinical Scholar Program
A new type of physician, capable of
and willing to take a leadership role in
improving the nation's health care
delivery system, is being trained at Duke
under a new graduate training program in
medicine.
Duke's Clinical Scholar Program will
be supported by grants from The Robert
Wood Johnson Foundation. Awards will
go to young doctors interested in careers
in developing and managing major health
systems and educational programs.
"These people will have a combination,
of talents and sensitivities no other group
would have," said Dr. William R. Harlan,
program director. "They're going to have
to be good at two things. First, they'll be
board-qualified, skilled clinicians with
experience caring for the individual
patient. Then they will be people
qualified in planning and administration
with a concern for the health care system
as a whole.
"Hopefully these physicians will bring
with them a different outlook," Harlan
said, ''the same way the
physician-scientist brings to research
some sensitivities that the biochemist
with a Ph.D. doesn't have."
The Johnson Foundation has
committed $5.9 million to the program at
eight to 12 medical schools across the
nation in the next four years. For the
fiscal year 73-74, Duke will receive
$96,000 to support four to six scholars.
The Clinical Scholar Program began
three years ago as a pilot program at five
of North America's leading medical
schools—Duke, Case Western Reserve,
Johns Hopkins, Stanford and McGill.
Funds for the experimental program were
provided by the Commonwealth Fund
and the Carnegie Corp. Duke has
graduated eleven clinical scholars during
the pilot program.
The new national program will be
based on the pilot projects and will be
administered by a 15-member national
board. Two Duke administrators—Dr.
Eugene Stead, professor of medicine, and
Dr. James B. Wyngaarden, chairman of
the Department of Medicine—will serve
on the board.
Dr. John C. Beck, currently chairman
of the Department of Medicine at McGill
University in Montreal, will be director of
the program.
Harlan said the Duke program during
the experimental phase has been a
one-year program, but it will eventually
be expanded to two years. Thcwe
accepted into the program must have
finished medical school, an internship
year and one year of residency in some
• clinical specialty.
The proposed core curriculum for the
program includes three to five months of
seminars on such topics as the economics
of health care, evaluation of manpower
needs, epidemiology, and computer use.
The second phase of the training program
(Continued on page 3)
When Rachel Kerr was a student at
Duke, walking to class along tree-lined
walkways and absorbing the knowledge
that would be turned into nursing skills,
Vietnam was just a place on the other
side of the world.
But today, when Vietnam is on the
front page of every newspaper, few
people know the Vietnamese or
understand their needs better than she.
For eight of the past 11 years Rachel
Kerr James, a 1958 graduate of the
School of Nursing, has devoted most of
her time and energy to caring for'
Vietnamese refugees in Saigon. When
Rachel, her husband and three children
left for Vietnam in 1962, they were the
sixth mission family to be approved by
the Foreign Mission Board of the Baptist
Church to work there.
Rachel's inspiration for and dedication
to her missionary work has grown out of
a deep-seeded love for her religion and a
genuine desire to help those in need. "At
the age of 14, I had decided to become a
nurse. I had heard about missionary work
through my mother and local church and
was inspired, at an early age, to yield my
life to the Lord to be used wherever He
wants me to be used...It was then, when I
was 14 years old, that I began my
pilgrimage."
In 1953 Rachel James entered the
School of Nursing and in her sophomore
year met her husband, Sam, who had
served in the Navy in Korea and had
brought refugees on his ship from
Haiphong in the North of Vietnam to
Saigon in the South. While Rachel was a
student at Duke and Sam a student at
Wake Forest, they both had decided to
become missionaries and were interested
in serving in the Orient.
After graduation, Rachel worked as a
staff nurse at Duke until 1962 when she
left with her family for Vietnam. After
awaiting entry visas to Vietnam in Hong
Kong, Rachel, Sam and their three
children entered the country in 1962 to
spend 16 months in the mountains of
Dalat. There, surrounded by pine trees,
waterfalls and deserted beaches, in a
climate described as "perpetual spring,"
the Jameses learned the "tonal" language
of the Vietnamese.
During their first trip to Vietnam,
which ended in 1966 when they took a
furlough leave for one year to return
home, the James family lived in a small
city called Thu Due, just eight miles
, north of Saigon.
While Sam worked as a pastor at a
Vietnamese church and also served as
interim pastor in a Chinese church,
Rachel took care of her three children
and those of her neighbor's. She made use
of her nursing skills by doing volunteer
work in the GYN Clinic of the Navy
Hospital. When the American Embassy
was bombed in 1965, she took care of the
women that were injured before they
were sent home.
Her volunteer work continued when
the Navy left Vietnam and she worked in
the Orthopaedic Clinic of the Third Field
Army Hospital, interpreting for the
Vietnamese patients.
Aside from establishing relationships
with other American missionary groups,
the Jameses came into contact with
civilian Americans working for major oil
companies in Saigon. There were 15
civilian nurses connected with these-
companies and Rachel worked closely
with them in offering her nursing skills.
When it came to the education of her
three children, she played a large role in
developing the Phoenix Study School
which was established when the local
community school was closed in 1965
during the evacuation.
According to Rachel, the evacuation
took its toll on "over 100 American
children, not to mention Chinese and
Vietnamese English-speaking children,
who needed schooling. So, we developed
the Phoenix Study School, which is really
a mini-school. Parents rented the building
and we have first through eighth grades.
Some of the company wives are teachers.
"Most mission children go away to
school after the eighth grade, but those
who remain at home take correspwndence
courses through the University of
Nebraska, a program designed for
American children living out of the
country where an American school is not
convenient."
When the Jameses returned to Saigon
in 1967 their command over the
Vietnamese language and firm confidence
in their special purpose in helping others,
were incentives enough to call them back
to their home away from home.
During the following four years they
established a theological seminary,
designed to train young Vietnamese men
and women. Sam headed the seminary
and saw its first students, two pastors and
(Continued on page 3)
Mondayf May 28
Memorial Day
Holiday