Tanzania with Missions for Humanity, Wendy Libowitz, RN, MS, CPNP-PC

Wendy Libowitz has been a registered nurse since 1995 and a pediatric nurse practitioner since 1998.  Nursing is a second career for Wendy.  She worked with adolescents in a community program management capacity before becoming a nurse.  Wendy’s work experience has included acute care, home health, and school nursing.  She currently works in a nursing consultation capacity for a private company.  She has volunteered as a nurse in Honduras and Tanzania.  She also volunteers for several organizations within her community.
Wendy holds a BA in Judaic Studies, BS in Nursing, and MS in Nursing all from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.  She is interested in pursuing a Master of Public Health degree next and aspires to move more into a public health nursing role in the future.
Wendy’s other passions include her family and pets, outdoor activities, and travel.
Today, thanks to generous donations from Barco's Nightingales, Wendy left for a 2 week medical mission trip to Tanzania with Missions for Humanity.  We can't wait to hear all about it when she returns.

Barco's Nightingale Scholarship Winner Jo Birdsong

Barco's Nightingale's scholarship winner Jo Birdsong is a registered nurse from the west coast. She was a lucky winner of our Nightingale's scholarship and is leaving to Haiti on a mission trip with the organization Project Helping Hands.

Jo has been in nursing for 30 + years and has enjoyed every bit of it and when she's not working, she has two sons and three grandchild who keep her busy! Jo is employed by Providence Little Company of Mary of Torrance, CA. There is spent 9 years working in their emergency department and was recently promoted to a Pre-Hospital Care Coordinator (if you are curious, a Pre-Hospital Care Coordinator is involved in all radio transmissions from the hospital to the paramedics out on the 9-1-1 calls. It's basically a liaison between paramedics, EMT's, fire departments, ER Radio Nurses and LA County EMS Agency).  Jo loves her job and her work!

Jo is not a new face to humanitarian mission trips. She has some experience under her belt and has participated in a total of 4 trips, all of which were to Haiti. The organization Jo is going with sends teams of volunteers to provide medical care and health education for people in all developing nations. The teams participate in treating and educating people in cities and towns, focusing on educating the local health care providers. This way their goal of seeing the health care providers become self sufficient is a reality.

If you are wondering how you can volunteer with Project Helping Hands please click here. There is a ton of info on their website and even some fascinating videos!

Jo Birdsong will be in Haiti February 3rd 2013 with Project Helping hands. Her mission was made possible by the scholarship she received from One Nurse At A Time and the generous support of Barco's Nightingales Foundation.

More will posted on her return!

Thanks-

ONAAT

Barco's Nightingale Scholarship - Josephine Sullivan

Our second Barco's Nightingale's Foundation scholarship winner has left for her mission trip to Ecuador February 1st. Josephine is an Operating Room (OR) Registered Nurse (RN) in Louisville Kentucky, where she has worked as an OR for the last 32 years. She has had the privilege of helping patients of all ages - children and adults in the operating room. 

Josephine started her love of travel and specifically the country Ecuador when she was 7 years old. Her family hosted an exchange student from the town of Quito, and from that moment on Josephine made a promise to herself that she would "Some day go to Ecuador". 

After forty or so years, Josephine finally held true to her promise and accompanied two Healing the Children (HTC) surgical teams to Ecuador in 2012. The two cities they traveled were Portoviejo and Bahia de Caraquez. In Portoviejo, the team accomplished 87 surgical procedures in two operating rooms in just four days. In Bahia de Caraquez, the team performed 70 surgical operations in four and a half days. With both of these trips, Josephine was hooked and she returned a better OR nurse because of her experiences and travels with these missions.

Healing the Children is a national organization that has provided medical care to children in need for over thirty years. There are 13 HTC chapters nationwide as well as many International Partners that are committed to helping children worldwide.     


February 1, 2013 Josephine left for Ecuador with Healing the Children thanks to the generous financial support from One Nurse At A Time and Barco's Nightingales Foundation. 



Have a great trip Josephine! We are looking forward to hearing about your trip when you return!

Thanks- 

ONAAT

Barco's Nightingale Scholarship Winner

One of our Barco’s Nightingale Scholarship winners Anne Daly is leaving for Kenya to start her mission trip with the organization Prevention International No Cervical Cancer (PINCC.) PINCC is a nonprofit, volunteer medical service organization whose mission is to create sustainable programs that prevent cervical cancer by educating and treating women, training medical personnel and equipping facilities in developing countries. The organization works with local community personnel to provide and inexpensive way to screen for cervical cancer, some of the countries this organization works with are Latin America, Africa and India. 

Today cervical cancer kills around 300,000 women worldwide each year, even though it is completely preventable. The process is relatively easy, it is done by visual inspection of the cervix and the use of vinegar. The vinegar allows the medical personnel to see if any changes are present that should be evaluated further. PINCC was established in 2005, by Dr. Kay Taylor, a gynecologist who during a medical mission in Honduras witnessed more women dying from cervical cancer then in her entire career. From this, Dr. Taylor and her team visited three health clinic sites where there they began to train healthcare workers in screening and treatment.

From Anne:

I am about to go to Africa for the first time - Kenya - with an organization that I really enjoy working with. It is PINCC, or, Prevention International, No Cervical Cancer. This is a NGO based out of Oakland, CA and it works to establish screening for cervical cancer (still a big problem in developing countries) in local communities by using a one-step screening process. This is important because the pap testing that we are often used to requires a lot of infrastructure and coordination - that often is not possible in these countries. 

With these trips I have the privilege of getting to know a small part of the community into which we are welcomed - in a deeper way than I would by just being a tourist. I also get to teach and interact with local health professionals and I learn so much from them. More, I sometimes think, than they might learn from me!! Being of service - wherever it might be, in any agency, community, location anywhere in the world, is profoundly gratifying for me and I am honored and privileged to be able to do this with the help of organizations that support these causes. I also feel a little less "alone" when I know I am going with the support of others - and that is extremely gratifying."

Thanks Anne! We wish you a great trip and hope to hear of your mission trip when you return.

-ONAAT CREW

Barco's Nightingales Foundation

We recently and graciously were offered a $5000.00 donation from the amazing organization Barco's Nightingales Foundation. Their foundation was established in December of 2008 by Michael and Frida Donner on behalf of Barco Uniforms. Their donation to One Nurse At A Time is their way of saluting the countless numbers of nurse volunteers we send around the world, caring and helping for people of all cultures.

Barco’s Nightingales Foundation objective is to support the vitality and courageous heart of nursing, while also dedicating themselves to honoring the spirit of those women and men who choose nursing by focusing their philanthropic efforts on helping to mend the lives of children and their families.

Missions for Humanity

We have already had the grand opportunity of selecting our first Barco’s Nightingales Scholarship Recipient, Wendy Libowitz, who will be traveling with Missions for Humanity next year from July 5^th to July 19^th 2013. More details to come on her trip soon!

Barco’s Nightingales has asked if we would include information about a survey looking at the Image of Nursing. It is their goal to elevate the perception of the profession and to help people understand and appreciate all that go into being a nurse. The feedback provided from the survey will be essential in accomplishing their goal.

Barco’s Nightingales Foundation has completed an initial qualitative phase of the research for the project and the information received during the interviews has been invaluable in all efforts.

The next phase of their project is to validate and provide statistical data to support the qualitative feedback gathered thus far.   Their research partner, Bovitz, Inc., has crafted an online survey and the link is below.  They survey is approximately 15 minutes in length and all answers will be kept strictly confidential and used for research purposes only.  Please be objective and honest in your responses as the validity in the data they receive is very important.

Please click the link below to start the survey, or copy and paste the
URL into a new browser window.

Barco's Nightingales Foundation Survey - Image of Nursing

Thank you Barco's Nighingales Foundation for your generous support. We appreciate all that you do!

- ONAAT