C.I. Jane Speaks

Tonight's blog is dedicated to the Clinical Instructora of our dreams: C.I. Jane!

Giving a presentation with a trusty translator to help spread her genius in other languages.

Check this!

Making friends en la comunidad...

Mentoring future nurses...

And tutoring (or being schooled) by the youth of Nicagua. Nuestra heroina! (Our hero!)

Tonight, we decided that we were quite tired of writing from our own perspective--que aburrida! So, we decided to ask the most interesting person in our group for her thoughts...who might that be, you ask? C.I. Jane claro que si!

Today she gave a "charla" or presentation about Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) to the UPOLI faculty, students and ourselves. FYI--Jane is a BALLER in research on this topic. She humbly boasts a doctoral degree from UCLA in pediatric nursing with a focus in immunology and neurobiology of the young infant. Dare we impress you further by telling you that she DID THE ENTIRE SPEECH IN SPANISH? Well, almost all of it. It's hard to translate how ammonia is a byproduct of protein breakdown in the liver...especially when you don't know the word for ammonia.

As students we've noted how difficult it is to translate our blooming nursing knowledge into espanol. Given that, it's hard to imagine how difficult is it to translate and communicate a plethora of knowledge into a second language. We decided to find out and interview her tonight, post-charla.

NicarBlogua: Would you say you know about as much as one can possibly know regarding SIDS?

C.I. Jane: ::pauses thoughtfully:: ...Yeah, pretty close. I've certainly read everything there is to read about SIDS. I mean I don't understand it all...

NicarBlogua: Tell us more about your research y las ratas que matas (=the rats who participate in your important studies to understand SIDS).

C.I. Jane::hearty laugh:: I don't know what to say. Well, it started as an accident. My disseration was in immunology. So I needed a place where I could do more 'bench' research. So I got a fellowship at NIEHS (National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences). And everything they did [utilized] animal models so that's how I learned [how to work with animal models]. With something like SIDS...you obviously can't research on humans, you can only look at humans who have already died.

NicarBlogua: More about the rats?

C.I.Jane:...I think the most important thing about rats is that they are AMAZING mothers. They take such good care of their babies!

NicarBlogua: You pre-translated the presentation and worked with a formal translator from UPOLI. How much more difficult was it to translate the intricacies and fine points of a disease that is so mysterious in its origin?

C.I. Jane: It was VERY difficult...difficult to talk about it and yet keep it as simple as possible so that I didn't lose anybody. I really only talked about a small part of my research. I had to go into the infection model and that was hard to translate! But it really helped to have to write it in English, translate it to Spanish and have the English version open during my presentation too. And I couldn't have done it without the translator.

NicarBlogua: How did it feel to be up there with 24 pairs of eyes staring at you?

C.I. Jane: Normal! ::laughs:: I always have 24 pairs of eyes staring at me. Spanish eyes were okay, too. I had my security blanket, my English version of the presentation and the translator. Had I not had the translator, I would have been TERRIFIED.

NicarBlogua: Do you think you could teach your research rats to respond to Spanish commands? Or at least how to order gallo pinto en the lab cafeteria?

C.I. Jane: Certainamente. They don't respond to English commands, but okay.

NicarBlogua: How did you think of the metaphor for the parasympathetic system/sympathetic system? Really folks it was genius no matter in what language you explain it.

C.I. Jane: I wish I had. Someone else mentioned it when I was learning the parasympathetic and sympathetic nervous system. It made sense to me, so I stole it. Genius can always recognize genius. You know when you're trying to figure something out and the light suddenly comes on, he was describing the car brakes and I was like...I GET IT!

NicarBlogua: Any closing remarks about the presentation?

C.I. Jane: I was very excited and relieved that it went well. And, we had a really good day today. We had two really great presentations today [referring to the charla given by two of our groupmembers about adult depression].

NicarBlogua: We think you did a great job and we learned a ton about SIDS... en espanol!!! Gracias y buen trabajo!