Volunteer Nursing

[holakarly]

Hi all,

I know there have been a few threads in regards to volunteering abroad, however, I have searched them and found them to be outdated or not very helpful. I am wondering if any of you nurses have worked or volunteered abroad in rural areas. How was the experience and how did you get connected? I have been searching for a while and so many of the experiences seem to have a "donation" requirement of upwards of $1000+ a month. I am very skeptical of these establishments.

I have traveled extensively in my pre-nursing days and even throughout nursing school. I did a short volunteer stint in Honduras as well. This was organized by a nursing friend to found the clinic and contacted them directly.

Any information or tips you can give are greatly appreciated.

[Kaley1]

There are quite a few out there, project hope and msf are the first two that come to mind. I have looked into this as well, and am pretty skeptical of a lot of the fee based volunteer programs but some of them are legit if you don't mind putting out the money. Mercy Ships is one that requires you to pay your way, but is 100% on the up and up. Many that require donations to volunteer will let you set up a sponsorship page where you can get people to sponsor your volunteer mission. You could also try crowd sourcing, it may take awhile, but my feeling is that the experience and personal satisfaction would be more than worth it. If you are putting out your own money or asking people to donate/sponsor you, I would definitely look into where the money goes. I donate to msf and project hope because I know the money goes to vital services instead of salaries. If you are fluent in French, I know that is a huge plus with msf.

[classicdame, MSN, EdD]

check with the American Red Cross. They have a good program. In Texas we have the Ready Texas Nurses program through our nurses association. If you sign up you are contacted via email if an emergency occurs. See if your nursing association has a similar program.