By Eric Johnson

ASHEVILLE (March 26, 2025) – For more than 20 years, nursing has ranked as the most trusted profession in American life. And Lori Byrd is determined to keep it that way. 

“Sometimes it just helps people for a nurse to come in, sit down and talk to you,” explained Byrd, the associate dean for strategic partnerships at the UNC Chapel Hill School of Nursing.

“Nurses are important because people trust us. It feels like something stable. And we teach our students they need to carry on that legacy.”

Byrd was part of a relief mission of students and faculty from Carolina Nursing who made a weeklong trip to the Asheville area during UNC’s spring break this month. 

For five days, the volunteer team set up free clinics in church parking lots and community centers; offered health workshops at a women’s shelter; and conducted screenings at a pediatric psychiatry clinic. It was a chance to offer much-needed care in a region still reeling from Hurricane Helene and still struggling with nursing shortages that long predated the storm.

“We’re not just here for the patients, but for the staff,” said Jean Davison, a professor at Carolina Nursing and the organizer of this month’s trip.

“After you’ve been through something like this, you need somebody to come in and bring respite care.” 

Professor Jean Davison offers health screenings in Asheville; Photo: Jessie Barber, courtesy of UNC School of Nursing

That’s because the toll of disaster can surface long after the most intensive rescue and recovery phase has passed. The impact of dealing with disrupted routines, caring for others, wrestling with a newfound sense of vulnerability — all of that shows up in the stories that Davison and her colleagues heard and in the data they collected. 

Elevated blood pressure, symptoms of chronic stress, uncontrolled diabetes, and an uptick in mental health challenges are all part of the long tail of a major catastrophe. 

“Every disaster is traumatic not just for the people who go through it, but for the people who witness it,” Davison said.

She has seen this firsthand in other parts of the world, from storm recovery in eastern North Carolina to the aftermath of wars and political strife in West African and Ukraine. It’s in the ethos of nurses to show up where there’s need, and Davison has lived by that code for a long time.

“You have to see how the mental health aspect affects everything,” she said. “That’s the biggest part I’ve tried to educate students around.”

The Carolina crew got an assist from Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College, where chair of the nursing program Christy Andrews arranged for a free stay at the lodge run by the college’s hospitality program. She also helped coordinate the free clinic in the parking lot of Reynolds Baptist Church in Fairview, where she serves as a deacon.

“We were all impacted by the storm,” Andrews said as she sat in front of a UNC Chapel Hill flag fluttering in the afternoon sun, advertising the nursing clinic. “We had students who lost a lot, and some who lost everything they had.”

And still, A-B Tech stood up a shelter on its campus for medically fragile residents who had nowhere else to go during the weeks that Asheville was without water and power. Andrews watched as her nursing students volunteered and took care of neighbors while trying to keep their own studies on track.

Nursing student Catherine Parrish at Reynolds Baptist Church; Photo: Jessie Barber, courtesy of UNC School of Nursing

“I think people who want to be nurses, they’re going to respond when there’s a disaster,” she said, recalling how students from Western Carolina University showed up to help staff the A-B Tech shelter.

Even before Helene, the mountain region was dealing with a chronic shortage of registered nurses and licensed practical nurses. In 2023, state lawmakers earmarked tens of millions in new funding to expand nursing programs at public universities and community colleges across the state.

Andrews said her graduates have no trouble finding solid jobs close to home.

“Most of them are rooted here, and they generally want to stay here,” she said. “In the Asheville area, you can make a living wage as a nurse, and that’s not easy to do here. It’s an expensive place.”

At Carolina, faculty hope that outreach trips like this one, along with regular rotations at the nursing school’s mobile health clinic, will give students some experience with the satisfactions of community care and a holistic approach to health.

Catherine Parrish, one of the students on the mountain trip, decided to become a nurse after her own frustrating experiences with the health system.

“I decided that instead of just complaining about it, I would do something about it,” she said, readying supplies to test blood sugar and conduct vision screenings at Reynolds Baptist. Hearing the stories of health providers in Western North Carolina has been eye-opening and inspiring, she said.

“They’ve been working 14-hour days for months on end, and it’s far from over,” she said. “They could definitely still use some reinforcements.”

Eric Johnson lives in Chapel Hill and works for the UNC System.