Each year, AMN Healthcare takes part in a mission to the impoverished highlands of Guatemala, sponsoring clinical and nonclinical personnel to quickly launch a week-long acute care surgical facility and clinic that provides vital healthcare to people who might otherwise never see a nurse or doctor.
This is a labor of love, because it's entirely volunteer and from the heart.
Nurses are at the heart of our Guatemala mission, providing the foundational work to transform a few empty rooms in a military base or community center into an operating and recovery suite, pharmacy, triage area, records room, and a clinic. Then, they staff each facility for the week to treat patients who come from towns, villages and farms from miles around. After a week, the nurses work to dismantle and pack up everything when the mission is over. In that time, they provide services to about a thousand patients, including a hundred surgeries, most commonly hysterectomies, hernias, tear duct blockage, tumor removal and eye surgery.
AMN Healthcare supports the transportation and other costs for the volunteers, and also helps the mission through logistics and other support. The AMN volunteers are often travel nurses who cherish this opportunity to provide care for the poorest of the poor, providing life-changing – and lifesaving – care for men, women and children. I feel fortunate to be able to join this amazing team every year and am always awestruck at the level of commitment, compassion and selflessness exhibited by all involved, but especially the nurses.
The AMN mission to Guatemala is also a life-changing experience for nurses. One nurse recalled people lining up outside the hospital at 4 a.m. on the first day, having traveled by bus or by foot for much-needed treatment. And the challenges that nurses must overcome are very real, such as the time power went out six times in a thunderstorm during a hysterectomy surgery, which had to be completed by flashlight. The rest of the hospital was lit by candles, because all flashlights and power from generators was needed in patient-care areas.
Nurses also took part in the outreach team that set up makeshift clinics in nearby villages, where hundreds of people would quickly line up at the triage table presenting conditions ranging from bug bites and tooth decay to serious infections and vision problems. The medical team treated what they could on the spot and referred the more serious conditions immediately to the hospital or clinic.
Said one AMN Healthcare travel nurse on the Guatemala mission: "I've been working as a nurse for nearly ten years, and the job is so gratifying. But I'm always look for something more that I can do for people, and for me this is the ultimate opportunity to offer my professional skills to those who need them most."
Each year, AMN Healthcare seeks nurses to volunteer for the mission, usually med-surg and recovery nurses and CRNAs. This is an experience like none other, and one where the strength and dedication of each individual and the team makes a life-changing impact for the patient, their family -- and the volunteers themselves.
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