Jo's Nurses - First One Nurse At A Time Mission

We now have a firm plan for a trip in February 2013 and would like to hear from you of your interest.

There is space for 4 nurses - 2 from Feb 16-23 and 2 from Feb 23 - Mar 2.

Location:  Guatemala.  First week will be working in villages around Rio Dulce in the northeast.  Second week is working in villages around Monte Rico in the southwest.  Flights are in and out of Guatemala City.  I will be accompanying both weeks to be your support/mentor.

Cost to you/Commitment:  $250.  One Nurse At A Time, Jo's Nurses program will pay the rest of your trip costs (approximately $1000 per person).  You must also make a moral commitment to do another volunteer trip by the end of 2014.  Our hope is this mission will get you over the "hump" of going on a first mission, that you will be excited and eager to volunteer again somewhere around the world.

You will also be expected to attend planning meetings and packing meetings prior to the trip to get comfortable with your teammates and participate in the preparations.  At least 1 planning and 1 packing are required (unless you're out of the Seattle area, then we'll provide reading material and phone calls to bring you up to date).  Meetings are 1/5 and 1/26 0930 - noon (usually at Group Health Central) and packing is 2/2 and 2/9 0930 until finished (also at Group Health)

Organization is Guatemala Village Health.  Spanish is helpful, but not an absolute requirement as translators are available.  You'll be asked to not only be flexible and take on various tasks, but will also be asked to assume a specific role such as triage (and teaching triage techniques to the local nurses), patient education (they've done groups for patients about dehydration, back pain, headache, skin issues, for example 5-10 patients with similar issues and give out Tums, tylenol, ibuprofen, etc.)  Training of nursing staff - sharing what and how we work here in the US with the local nurses and health promoters who have much less formal training.  They see lots of diabetics, hypertension, prenatal care, malnutrition ... These will be less clinic based and more village based, and an opportunity to be with people in their home environments.

Please express your interest prior to December 15.  Send an email to OneNurseAtATime@gmail.com.  Include a brief introduction of who you are, what your nursing background is and tell us why you want to participate in this mission, how this will impact your career/life, what you anticipate your future in volunteering to be.  Tell us what you do well, what you don't.  What you bring to this mission and why you should be selected to participate.  Don't forget your contact information!  I'll follow up with each of you, conduct a phone interview and present candidates to the board of directors for a decision before the end of December.

Let me know of any questions and hope to hear from you by Dec 15.

Thanks, 
Sue