In 2011, the UM SONHS entered into a partnership with Project Medishare, through which our master’s-level students participate in Healthcare Missions to Haiti. A 90-minute flight from Miami takes nursing students to Haiti, the poorest country with the highest child mortality rate in the Western hemisphere. Students work alongside faculty and Haitian community health workers to provide primary care in Thomonde, a remote town in Haiti’s central plateau underserved by other Haiti relief agencies. Students set up and staff mobile health clinics, where the local populace converges for blood pressure readings, immunizations, prenatal vitamins and other preventive medicines, healthcare education and basic toiletries. Student teams conduct home health visits, knocking on locals’ doors and asking for permission to provide health care services, supplies, and education. Our advanced practice nursing student teams also educate local nurses and physicians in primary care delivery. An estimated 3,000+ Haitian patients have received care through this program, and our students gain: increased knowledge of third-world healthcare challenges; interest in working with the medically underserved; culturally-competent intervention skills and ability to triage with limited resources. They have also increased care delivery capacity in Haiti’s healthcare workforce. Multiple competitively awarded UM Citizens Board grants acknowledge the value of this program.
