79 Perioperative Nurses Volunteer with Mercy Ships
Garden Valley, Texas (PRWEB) November 07, 2016 -- In the 10 months Mercy Ships is docked in Benin, West Africa, 79 perioperative nurses will volunteer onboard the world’s largest private floating hospital. During Perioperative Nurses Week, Mercy Ships recognizes these healthcare professionals for their critical role in assuring patients’ safety. They assess needs and care for patients immediately before, during and after surgeries. In the operating room they may work as circulating nurses, instrument nurses or assistants to anesthesiologists.
Perioperative nurse volunteer Lindsey Wilde from Texas has served with Mercy Ships three times – twice in Madagascar and now in Benin, where she’ll stay onboard through December 2016. When she’s home in Texas, Wilde works as a travel nurse, a job that allows her the flexibility to serve with Mercy Ships for several months at a time.
Putting the Mercy Ships experience into words is a challenge. “I feel privileged to serve alongside 400 volunteers with such servant hearts,” Wilde shared. “We are there together to bring hope and healing to the world's forgotten poor. Without hope, we are lost. When hope is restored, we receive a second chance in life. You can see the gratitude in a mother's eyes who witnesses her daughter using her arm for the first time in years because we were able to release her burn contracture. It is a basic human right to have access to safe surgery. I did not understand how many millions of people suffered and died because they simply did not have access to care. With Mercy Ships, we bring hope to the hopeless.”
The hospital ship Africa Mercy is docked in Benin through June 2017 and plans to meet immediate medical needs by providing over 1,700 life-changing surgeries for adult and pediatric patients onboard. In addition, over 8,000 patients will receive treatment at a land-based Mercy Ships dental clinic. To improve Benin’s healthcare delivery system, Mercy Ships will also provide medical training to Beninese healthcare professionals.
About Mercy Ships:
Mercy Ships uses hospital ships to deliver free, world-class healthcare services, capacity building and sustainable development to those with little access in the developing world. Founded in 1978 by Don and Deyon Stephens, Mercy Ships has worked in more than 70 countries providing services valued at more than $1.3 billion, treating more than 2.56 million direct beneficiaries. The Africa Mercy is crewed by 400 volunteers from up to 40 nations, an average of 1000 each year. Professionals including surgeons, dentists, nurses, healthcare trainers, teachers, cooks, seamen, engineers, and agriculturalists donate their time and skills to the effort. With offices in 16 nations, Mercy Ships seeks to transform individuals and serve nations one at a time. For more information click on http://www.mercyships.org
For More Information Contact:
For USA: Pauline Rick
US Public Relations Coordinator
Mercy Ships
Office Tel: (903) 939-7000
Mob: (972) 922-5442
Email: us.media(at)mercyships(dot)org
For Int’l: Diane Rickard
International Media Manager
Mercy Ships
Diane.rickard(at)mercyships(dot)org
http://www.mercyships.org
Hi-res photos and general Mercy Ships B-Roll video footage are available upon request.
Pauline Rick, Mercy Ships, http://www.mercyships.org, +1 9729225442, [email protected]
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