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From the Editor
Once again, in light of the
recent earthquakes in Chile, Haiti and--most recently--Eastern Turkey, we turn
our attention to volunteering--specifically, medical missions.
Helping us keep our focus on
volunteering is NIFA surgeon faculty member Dr. Glenn Geelhoed, who, for more
than 30 years, has taken medical volunteers to the poorest parts of the globe
to treat patients and train local health care workers.
Now you can follow Dr. Glenn's adventures on a week-by-week basis and also
read his latest book, Surgery and Healing in the Developing World,
available to NIFA students and graduates as a free download--scroll down to
learn how.
For further inspiration, read
on to learn about NIFA graduate Mia Powell's recent medical mission in Peru.
Did you know that, as an RNFA
student--depending on your competency level--you may be able to log your 120
internship hours on a missionary trip? (Check with  your workshop teacher and
supervisor to ascertain your skill level before moving forward.) Although NIFA
cannot specifically arrange surgical missions for our students or graduates,
toward the end of this issue we offer some resources to pursue.
Julie Lancaster, Editor
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Where in the World is Dr. Glenn Geelhoed?
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You may have met Dr. Geelhoed as a visiting instructor at the
SutureStar™ Workshops. But did you know that he is also head of International
Surgery at George Washington University Medical Center and has been honored as
George Magazine's Humanitarian of the Year (2000) and the American College of
Surgeon's Surgical Volunteer of the Year (2009)?
 Since 1966 Dr. Geelhoed has spent from three to six months
of every year as a medical missionary, serving the neediest of people (he
affectionately calls them "the world's bottom billion") and training non-MDs
and MDs to continue in his absence.
"I'm an American; I've been on the receiving end of a whole
lot of advantages and have not even paid back the interest," he says, adding
that volunteers soon find they are on the receiving end of lessons in human
resilience that he calls "gifts from the poor."
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Exclusive: Dr. Glenn's New Book
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 Dr. Glenn's newest book,
Surgery and Healing in the Developing World, 485 pages, was recently
released at the American College of Surgeons Clinical Congress.
The book addresses the divide between labor- and equipment-intensive
practice of medicine and surgery in Europe and North America versus medicine as
practiced in the Third World, where resources are sharply limited and a
majority of people live and die without ever visiting a physician. The book
offers tricks, surgical adaptations and improvisations that Dr. Glenn has
learned in the field.
"The author believes that the improvisations and techniques
reviewed in this text can be carried back as skills learned-a gift from the
Third to the First World-and adapted to the care of increasingly diverse
populations of patients closer to home," Dr. Glenn writes. "The intention is
that lives should be enhanced on either side of the exchange."
NIFA is the exclusive distributor of this book and is making
it available as a FREE download for our RNFA student/graduates and readers of
this e-newsletter. You are encouraged, but not required, to make a donation
when downloading the book; funds will help support Dr. Glenn's future medical
missions. For an introduction to the book and to download it, click here:
http://rnfa.org/geelhoedworld.html
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Graduate in the Spotlight: Mia Powell
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Name: Mia Powell
Credentials: RN, CNOR, RNFA
City and State: Huntington Beach, CA
Current Job: Works privately for an orthopedic and spine
surgery practice and an outpatient surgery center
Graduate Status: Took NIFA's RNFA class in Nevada in February
2008
Mia's
Story
I live in Huntington
Beach, CA and work privately for an orthopedic and spine surgery practice; we operate out of Pacific Hospital in Long Beach, CA. The hospital has its
own spine program, and we mainly do multi-level cervical and lumbar fusions
there. I also work at an outpatient surgery center where I assist with
single-level laminectomies and diskectomies, single-level cervical fusions,
joint arthroscopies, ACL reconstructions, minor fractures, and plastic and
reconstructive surgery procedures as well.
Last year I
participated in a humanitarian medical mission to Peru with a team of
neurosurgeons and orthopedic-spine surgeons.
 We volunteered our
time at a hospital in Lima, and performed 15 spinal surgeries in three days.
The procedures included anterior cervical fusions, posterior lumbar interbody
fusions, spinal tumor resections, laminectomies, and diskectomies. As a First
Assist, I was responsible for assisting with the implantation of the hardware.
I learned how to put in pedicle screws and rods, and I also learned how to
harvest iliac crest bone graft.
It was such a great
experience for me, and it was so wonderful to be able to help change the lives
of the people we operated on while we were there. This opportunity would never
have been made available  to me if I had not taken the initiative to enroll in
NIFA's RN First Assist program. I look forward to volunteering my time for more
surgery missions in the future.
My trip to Peru was sponsored by a spinal implant company called
Innovasis, Inc., which is based in Salt Lake City, Utah. The owner of
Innovasis, Dr. Brent Felix, invites orthopedic spine surgeons and neurosurgeons
from around the country to volunteer their time performing surgeries in Peru
twice a year. I was honored to be a part of such a rewarding experience.
I have included some
photos from the trip. Hopefully they are not too bloody. The niece of one of
the local Peruvian surgeons, who is an aspiring medical student, was observing
in the OR and we had her scrub in with us. I taught her how to suture, and
included a photo of that also.
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Interested in Pursuing a Medical Mission?
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As mentioned above, NIFA
cannot arrange surgical missions for our students or graduates. But we
encourage you to look into volunteering on a mission if your skills are up to
the task.
As for assisting Dr. Geelhoed
personally; he has his own first assistants already scheduled for the
foreseeable future, but you may go to the website of his organization, Mission to Heal, and
fill out a volunteer application to see if they can use your services.
We have complied a list of
other missions here. (Please note: NIFA does not specifically endorse any of
these missions.) |
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