By Glenna Murdock, RN, contributor
Jan. 21, 2010 - It took only 35 seconds on January 12 for a powerful earthquake to decimate the impoverished nation of Haiti, creating an overwhelming medical disaster. It took only a few hours following news of the catastrophe for the phone lines at RN Response Network (RNRN) to be flooded by calls from nurses willing to travel to Haiti to assist in the relief effort. RNRN is an arm of National Nurses United (NNU), the nation’s largest union and professional organization of registered nurses.
To date, 11,460 nurses have volunteered their services to RNRN alone, and thousands more are stepping up to join the variety of relief efforts being coordinated throughout the United States. (See NurseZone's additional resources below for news and ways to help.)
NNU Executive Director Rose Ann DeMoro praised the volunteers for their rapid response. “We’ve never seen anything like this. We have a very heightened sense of urgency, with RNs across the country wanting to be deployed to Haiti. It’s heartwarming to know that kind of humanitarian concern is deeply embedded in RNs.”
One of the many relief organizations mobilizing to lend a hand in the face of this disaster is Arm2Arm, Inc., a Connecticut-based non profit organization that for several years has provided basic education and health services to underprivileged Haitian children. Prior to the earthquake, a team of five RNs, four physicians and three ancillary workers was scheduled to travel to Haiti on January 28 for a routine medical mission. The team will follow through with its travel plans but will now focus on caring for those injured in the quake.
Arm2Arm team member Linda Massa, RN, will be making her third trip to Haiti and can only speculate as to what her role will be on this journey.
“I envision that we will be doing much of our work in the open, rather than in a hospital or clinic,” Massa said. “Because we’ll be arriving two weeks following the quake, the serious trauma will have been taken care of and we will be dealing with the aftermath—treating or preventing infection and managing pain. Due to the lack of sanitation, we likely will see many cases of dysentery and perhaps cholera. On previous trips we have stayed at the home of our founders’ sister but her home was destroyed in the quake. This time we will be sleeping in tents—basically camping out.”
At RNRN headquarters, they are dealing with the time-consuming task of sorting through those 11,460 candidate volunteers to determine who meets specific requirements as to nursing expertise and other specialized qualifications.
“First priority is given to those with past disaster experience or who have done field work as a military medic,” said Liz Jacobs, RN, spokesperson for RNRN. “Those who speak the language—French and Creole in this case—or who have extensive operating room or trauma unit experience also move to the front of the line.”
With much of the international focus now on search and rescue, NNU has found establishment of medical assistance operations to be slower. RNRN is making arrangements to send in teams of nurses and is asking nurse volunteers to prepare for immediate availability by getting the proper vaccinations, securing passports and arranging leave from their jobs.
“We must all be flexible,” said Jacobs. “Transportation is a big problem right now. It is difficult to fly into Port-au-Prince, which may require that we route our teams through the Dominican Republic. We need to find places where we can set up, do our job and not put our workers at risk.”
“There will be a long-term need for nurses in Haiti,” Jacobs continued. “The conditions of those with chronic illnesses will deteriorate because of lack of treatment during this disaster phase when medicines are not available. At this time we are looking at seven-to-ten-day deployments for our teams. It is, however, far more efficient to keep a team in place for longer stretches and that’s what we’re hoping we’ll be able to do.”
Oregon-based Medical Teams International (MTI) placed an experienced team of six physicians and three nurses in Haiti just two days following the disaster.
“Before they left they said, ‘Give us two days to assess the situation and we’ll tell you what kind of workers, how many and for how many weeks they’ll be needed,’” said Marlene Minor, vice president of communications for MTI. “We have a list of 280 medical professionals, all with extensive disaster relief experience. We don’t send novices. Three doctors, two nurses and a hospital administrator who is an expert in setting up field hospitals will travel to Haiti later this week. We have skilled teams stacked up and ready to go and nurses are a vital part of each team.”
DeMoro added, “What’s amazing to us is in every disaster the role of the RN is in the background until the relief workers are actually on the ground and then they’re saying, ‘Where are the RNs?’”
Additional Resources on the Haiti Earthquake Crisis:
Information on how to volunteer services, goods or make a monetary donation:
Center for International Disaster Information - Haiti
Google Crisis Relief: Supporting Disaster Relief in Haiti
Up-to-date Press Releases:
Partners In Health: Report from Haiti
Current U.S. Blood Supply is Adequate to Handle Demands Resulting from Earthquake in Haiti
USS Bataan Ready to Help in Haiti
PAHO Haiti Relief Efforts Continue to Face Major Obstacles
ANA and the International Medical Corps Recruiting Nurse Volunteers for Haiti
HHS Deploying U.S. Medical Personnel to Haiti
HHS Medical Teams Providing Medical Care in Haiti
Charitable Organizations:
American Red Cross: The American Red Cross' primary focus during the initial response of an emergency is feeding, sheltering and supplying any other basic needs.
AmeriCares: This nonprofit disaster relief organization delivers medicine, medical supplies and aid to people in crisis. Donations will go toward medicine and medical supplies and for expenses for providing that medical aid.
American Jewish World Service: AJWS has created the Haiti Earthquake Relief Fund to support its network of grantees as they address the urgent needs of the affected population.
Care: This humanitarian organization's main focus is to fight global poverty, specifically by empowering marginalized women and girls. Money will go toward food, water and sanitation, shelter and emergency health response.
Medecins sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders): The humanitarian organization delivers medical care to people caught in crisis. Donations to its Haiti relief efforts will go toward repairing the obstetrics and trauma hospitals in Haiti that were damaged in the earthquake. They also will go to transporting an additional 70 doctors and medical supplies to the island in an effort to set up makeshift emergency medical response centers.
International Medical Corps: This emergency response agency focuses on health in emergency situations. Monetary donations go toward purchasing medical supplies, medicine and emergency kits and transporting these supplies.
The Salvation Army: The Salvation Army is working to provide food, supplies and medical services to the people of Haiti. Donations will go towards purchasing food, water, medical, sheltering and other emergency supplies.
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