Maria's Nursing Internship in Haiti

Family and friends,


Hi everyone!! I hope this finds all of you healthy and happy!
Many of you are aware of my current pursuit in conquering my second bachelor’s degree. For the past year I have been living in Colorado attending the Denver school of Nursing, where I will be receiving a Bachelors of Nursing in March 2015. Since my first quarter, I have been participating in our Global Health Perspectives (GHP) club. GHP is designed to provide clinical training experiences for nursing students in international, socioeconomically challenged environments. Out of 30 students I am 1 of 8 who have been chosen to go to Haiti and represent DSN. During our fall break, we will be participating in a 2 week internship in Haiti, working 10-12 hours per day. My fellow students and I will be flying into Port-au-Prince and then traveling to communities in need of our assistance. We will be providing health assessments, assisting in births, prenatal education, pediatric care, as well as immunizations. I will be receiving clinical hours towards my degree. To be eligible for this internship, we were required to complete a minimum of 6 volunteer hours at two different sites per quarter. I have taken my volunteer hours very seriously throughout the last four quarters and will continue to do so. In the short year I’ve been in Denver, I have averaged 20+ hours per quarter working with a handful of organizations. In keeping with the mission of GHP I, too, have been trying to broaden my perspective on world health. Some of a few organizations I have volunteered with this year are: 

• http://www.meetup.com/Walk-with-a-Doc-Denver/

• http://b4bc.org/

• http://www.redcross.org/co/denver

• http://globalhealthconnections.org/

Currently Haiti has one of the highest infant mortality rates in the Western Hemisphere; they also account for half of the cholera cases in the world. 14 million dollars was pledged by countries and donations from around the world since their big earthquake in 2010, which had devastating effects. Very little of that money has been received and utilized. Not only do we intend to assist each organization with whatever is required of us, we are also personally integrating the communication of all the organizations with each other. With the help and guidance of our courageous leader, Micah Hughes, Director of GHP/Assistant Professor at DSN, we are able to make this all happen. (http://www.linkedin.com/pub/micah-hughes/86/734/319)