St. Francis Nurse’s Jamaica Mission a Personal One

Alena Munro

The sun is starting to set over the island of Jamaica and vacationers are returning from the beach to their luxurious resort with sun-kissed skin and relaxed smiles. 

In the distance, a woman in scrubs is loading the back of a truck with medical supplies. She has spent the day tending to the underserved population of Clarendon, a town on the island.

Novlet Davis, a nurse practitioner at St. Francis Hospital in Roslyn, has seen a whole other side to Jamaica that few tourists see. 

In 2012, the 54-year-old founded an organization to enhance the care and health of the under-served population of Clarendon, where she grew up.

The Lorretta, Jacqueline, Donald, Rohan Davis Foundation (LJDR Davis Foundation) is named in memory of her four late siblings, who all died while living in Clarendon.

“When I saw how many of my siblings passed because of a lack of proper medical care I knew I had to do something,” said Davis, who’s received several awards for her work. “That propelled me to start the medical mission.”

The foundation has a team of 64 volunteers and has helped over 2,000 residents in the community, according to Davis.

The LJDR Davis foundation receives donations of wheelchairs, hospital beds, and other materials from hospitals and churches around Queens and Long Island. The volunteer team holds fundraisers and drives throughout the year to raise funds for the medical mission.

Davis recruits a team of doctors, nurses, and volunteers who go to the northern region of Clarendon once a year to provide a week of free medical care to a community of about 60,000 residents.

The team goes to a local school to set up a facility where community members can receive prescription medication and wellness check-ups. Clarendon is under-served because of its lack of clinics, health-care providers and hospitals. The closest medical center is almost two hours away.

“The country needs help. The people need help,” Davis said.

Although Davis grew up poor there, she has fond memories.

“All the children in the community were like family,” Davis said. “On Sunday all the children would meet in my yard and we would play hide-and-seek.”

Davis attended the Jamaica Institute of Management in the late 1980s, learning key management skills and how to become an effective leader. 

She came to America in 1987 and received her bachelor of arts and master’s degrees in nursing from Molloy College. She is currently living in Rosedale, Queens, and working on her doctorate in nursing practice at Stony Brook University.

When she is not working, she is teaching medical-surgical nursing at Molloy College. 

Her days are hectic, but rewarding, she said. The limited free time she has typically goes toward her foundation.

The foundation has greatly affected not only the patients, but also the volunteers.

“Being a minor, I believed I wouldn’t be much help on the mission,” said Kayla Chang, who volunteers along with her mother, Melissa. “Despite being inexperienced, Novlet welcomed me and found a place where I belong. The impact of the foundation is unexplainable. This foundation gives people who can’t afford medical help a second chance at life.”

Melissa Chang agreed.

“I performed a hundred cardiac screenings while working on the mission … the team was able to give the people in the community a full health and wellness check-up that they have never experienced before,” she said.

The medical mission is greatly appreciated by the community.

“The way the people in the community greet you … they can’t be more grateful,” Davis said. “At the end of the mission they come to me … with all the fruits from the community they can find as a way to say thank you.”

In addition to providing care on-site in the community the foundation sometimes flies members of the community to the Unites States for serious procedures. Two years ago Davis brought a patient to America to receive open heart surgery.

“This patient couldn’t breathe and couldn’t walk for two minutes without being short of breath,” Davis said. “Last year at the medical mission he showed up for a check-up. It made me feel like I saved his life. He told me ‘I have a new life. I am a new me.’”

Others have taken notice of Davis’s hard work, as well.

Davis has received the Humanitarian Award from St. Francis Hospital in 2013 and the Caribbean-American Health Care Award in 2015 for her work with the under-served community.

She was also named Long Island’s Nurse Practitioner of the Year in 2015 by the Nurse Practitioner Association of Long Island.

But Davis wants to accomplish much more. She hopes to expand her efforts in Jamaica, by providing health care services to other communities. The foundation wants to not only provide medical care, but also education.

“I want to educate the community on how to live with chronic diseases,” Davis said. “We teach the members of the community on the importance of compliance when taking medication.”

Davis is currently planning the fourth medical mission that will run from July 10 to July 18.

For Davis, the mission is personal.

“In December one of my sisters, Ruby, died and we want to do this mission in her memory,” she said. “We want to do much more. I want to be visible to more people.”

Share this Article