小优视频

This past October, as Hurricane Milton bore down on Tampa Bay, Dylan Neel 鈥�22, readied his go-bag to volunteer with the American Red Cross.

Speaking the day before Milton made landfall in Sarasota, Neel projected an air of calm competence; he鈥檚 no stranger to caring for those impacted by crises, both natural and man-made.

Neel, a Kentucky native who served six years in the Navy as a linguist specializing in Arabic intelligence, said he was drawn to the nursing program at 小优视频ampa because, he said, 鈥淚鈥檝e always liked helping people, and there鈥檚 just so many different avenues to go down in nursing.鈥� But when he first enrolled, he didn鈥檛 realize just how far away some of those roads might lead.

While still in nursing school, Neel worked as a patient care technician with Tampa General Hospital鈥檚 geriatric medicine unit. After graduation, he continued as a nurse for older adults. But after about two years, he felt the itch to do something different.

鈥淚 always wanted to volunteer,鈥� he said, and when Russia鈥檚 aggressions in Ukraine boiled over in 2022, he didn鈥檛 think he could do anything. 鈥淏ut after a year or two of nursing experience, I felt like I now have the ability,鈥� he said.

He researched nursing volunteer opportunities in Ukraine and found an organization that coordinates such efforts and signed up for a 10-day session last February. There, he worked with a unit offering primary care for villagers who otherwise wouldn鈥檛 have access to health care. The work took him from the capital, Kyiv, to Mykolaiv and beyond as he assisted patients of all ages with all manner of conditions and ailments in several villages across central and southern Ukraine.听

Although he didn鈥檛 work on the front lines, the war was never far away. Neel said some of what he witnessed was 鈥減retty gnarly. I was in intelligence, so I kind of knew what to expect from a war-torn country. But some of the things that really struck me were advertisements for military-grade body armor and gear on the subway. That was really shocking to me.鈥�

But he was also deeply moved by the resilience of the people he met and the friends he made, so he returned for a second 10-day stint a couple of months later.

In between those two Ukraine trips, Neel also traveled to Rwanda with an anesthesiologist he met in Ukraine. In Rwanda, he assisted a surgical team treating women with obstetric and gynecological disorders.

鈥淚鈥檝e never done that kind of nursing before,鈥� Neel said, adding, 鈥淚t was unbelievable. I鈥檓 going back in May.鈥�

In the meantime, Neel helped fellow Floridians recover from a devastating hurricane season. He said he looks forward to a full and varied career caring for others around the world.

鈥淢y bucket list goal, and one of the actual reasons I became a nurse, was so I could go to Antarctica with the science team there,鈥� he said. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 the top of the mountain for me.鈥�