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Nurse Volunteers

Caring. Kind. Compassionate. Advocate.

The primary role of a nurse is to fiercely advocate for individuals during their care and support them through health and illness. Each mission brings an opportunity for our nursing staff to bring health and hope. IMR nurse volunteers are essential to the success of our medical mission trips. Whether you are a CNA, LPN, RN, BSN or you have a particular nursing specialty such as women’s health, pediatrics, geriatrics, wound care, or ICU, our patients need your expertise, skills, and care!

IMR nurses come from various backgrounds. A common thread of nurses and many medical professionals is the lack of time they can spend with their patients in the work setting. On IMR medical missions abroad, nurses are afforded the time they need to spend with each patient.

Another stark contrast for nurses working at home versus volunteering with IMR is the patient’s willingness to accept patient education. The genuine gratitude our patients express to volunteers is truly very humbling and rewarding.

Many of our IMR volunteer nurses have rekindled their love for their scope. So many have been burned out from recent patient workload ratios, ever-changing administrative policies, and just not feeling valued in their employment experience.

If this resonates with you as a nurse, we hope you can find the time to join IMR on an international medical mission. See the world, provide compassionate care to thankful communities, and reconnect to the reason why you chose such a brave profession.

We would love to connect you to fellow IMR nurse alumni to share their IMR experiences with you.

Nurse PJ in Honduras

What Is Clinic Like for Nurse Volunteers?

Let Corrine, an RN, show you around clinic.

IMR clinics include three basic components: acute medical care, acute dental care, and community health education. Our teams consist of a variety of medical and non-medical volunteers, including medical providers, dentists and dental staff, PAs, NPs, nurses, EMS, non-medical personnel, and an IMR staff clinic director. The make-up of each team is unique and the services we provide to patients are, in part, specialized to meet the expertise within the team.

Nurse volunteers with diverse talents and skills fill a variety of roles. These roles include triage, pharmacy, lab, and wound care, as well as help to perform wellness checks for patients who come to our clinics. Many patients present with multiple chief complaints or are unable to articulate exactly what is the problem, but our nurses are able to utilize clinical interviewing to gain insight.

A hug is an amazing thing. It’s just the perfect way to show the love we’re feeling but can’t find the words to say. I have no words to describe today. Today I hugged so many men, women, and children. Today we went to the most amazing community. Women, children, and men walked for miles to come to our clinic, some with shoes, some without. We saw around 160 people today. While the children waited, they played futbol with some of our members. They enjoyed toys, whistles, and coloring books. We treated for infections, worms, chronic pain, and rashes, to name a few. Smiles and laughter filled the three-room schoolhouse. The smiles, hugs, and handshakes were limitless. The love that filled the rooms was endless. Someone once told me that to make a difference in someone’s life you don’t have to be brilliant, rich, or beautiful. You just have to care.

Roles for Nurse Volunteers in Clinic

Well Care

Assess well and mostly well patients and recommend over-the-counter medications or prescription medications under standing orders. You will work as part of a collaborative care team with physicians, advanced practice providers, and other medical professionals.

Triage

Triage patients to sick or well care based on vital signs and a rapid assessment.

Laboratory, injectables, and respiratory therapy

Provide laboratory testing, nebulizer treatments, teach correct use of inhalers and other therapies, reconstitute and administer IV and IM medications.

Wound care

Coverage of the wound care area and treatment of major and minor wounds

ICU

Administer IV fluids and medications as required in clinic.

Minor procedures

You may be asked to assist other providers in minor procedures in clinic

Sustainable Community Health Education

Education at well-care stations on the prevention of diabetes, hypertension, sexually transmitted infections, family planning, asthma and respiratory diseases, vaginal and urinary tract infections, and new baby care. Patients also receive group classes in basic hygiene, hydration, sanitation, water purification, wound care, and stretching.

Teaching

All providers on IMR missions are responsible for teaching IMR student volunteers and local health care students. Students work under direct supervision and within their scope of care and comfort level. You may be asked to provide direct supervision to student nurses as required.

Testimonials

Salani kahle. The Zulu word for Goodbye – stay well.

As I sit at the airport waiting for my long journey back home, I can’t help but to reflect upon my mission this past week while fighting back tears.

This week I’ve learned life lessons that can’t be taught.
I've learned that one person truly can make a difference in someone’s life. I've learned that no matter how big or small, an act of kindness goes a long way. I've learned that you can never know the struggle a person is going through unless you take the time to listen and understand. I've learned to withhold judgment, you never know what it’s like in someone else’s shoes. (If they even have them.) I've learned that hugs and smiles are a universal language. I've learned that no matter how bad the day, it could always be a lot worse. I've learned to be grateful and humble.

This week I have held complete strangers in my arms. I’ve been hugged so hard I can feel the love radiating. The smiles I have seen can bring sunshine to any stormy day. This week I have met people so poor, but so rich in love and happiness.

A piece of my heart will always be here in Africa.

We bid goodbye to this place of clear skies and a thousand hills and valleys, to the sounds of the birds and to the smiles of the people we see everywhere we go. We say goodbye to the majestic giraffe and its graceful manner, to the elephant who protects us all, and to the lions who are fierce as they remind us – they rule the lands. We say goodbye to the many orphans we cradled in our arms and the tears we wiped away from their cheeks as well as our own. We look behind as the townships wave and bless us for volunteering to bring them medical care and laughter and love they have not, or may never, receive again. We watch the sunset over the Indian Ocean and it drops into the deep water so vast with its myriad colors of blue.

We say "see you later" to the many people who have watched over us this week as they changed our lives. We remember the sights and the smells, the sounds and the light. We know we can change the world one kind act at a time and we know we have changed ours forever.

We remember that everyONE matters. We think of the hands we held, the joy we shared, the tears we held back, and the ones we let fall down our cheeks.

Farewell beautiful and wonderful and peaceful South Africa. You will never stand apart from us but will forever be with us.

There are so many things I love about IMR missions: meeting like-minded people, the locations, but above all it's giving back. From the outside, people view volunteers as angels or saints. Little do they know that I always get back more than I give, always returning home a better version of myself.

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Join Us in Making a Difference.

Bring much-needed acute medical and dental care to a beautiful, culture-rich destination. You can join an IMR medical mission team today!