AORN president Voight joins Mercy Ships effort in AfricaBy Matt Gunn
News Editor/Writer
It’s not often easy to picture the state of healthcare outside the United States without seeing it firsthand, particularly in developing nations or those otherwise underserved.
AORN president Patrick Voight, RN, BSN, MSA, CNOR, was able to volunteer some of his time recently on a four-day trip to Africa with Mercy Ships. Joining Voight on the journey was Gene Robinson, the president and CEO of IMS, AORN Foundation board member and founder of Instruments of Mercy (IOM), a nonprofit organization that restores and refurbishes medical instrumentation for healthcare providers on mission trips.
Photo courtesy of Jennifer Willis. Used with permission.
AORN president Patrick Voight, RN, BSN, MSA, CNOR,
was able to volunteer some of his time recently on a
four-day trip to Africa with Mercy Ships.
A global charity that has operated hospital ships in developing countries since 1978, Mercy Ships’ largest vessel, the African Mercy, was stationed at the city of Cotonou in Benin, a country bordered by Togo and Nigeria.
“When I first found out about Africa Mercy – probably about a year ago – I was fascinated,” Voight said. “I was fascinated with all the volunteers who do medical missionary work, and the scope of services they really provide.”
Voight opened a dialog with Mercy Ships about a year ago. During Congress 2009 in Chicago he introduced Robinson to Mercy Ships. By June Voight, Robinson, and several others were visiting Mercy Ships’ mission in Cotonou on behalf of AORN and IOM.
“When I took over as the president of the association in March 2009, we announced and kicked off our collaboration with Mercy Ships,” Voight said. “I felt that as an ambassador – as a collaborative partner with Mercy Ships – that I really needed to go over there and experience it first hand, so that I could take the experiences back to our membership and try to get them excited about volunteering.”
Through visiting Africa, Voight made an impression on Mercy Ships staff and volunteers.
“It truly has been fantastic,” said Mila Hightower, Mercy Ships marketing director who accompanied Voight and Robinson on the visit. “Patrick was well received onboard by the nursing staff there on the ship. It meant a lot more to the nursing staff to have him on board than I think anyone could have imagined.”
In his time aboard the Africa Mercy, Voight met with nursing volunteers, saw the scope of practice and even participated in procedures. Though it was only a four-day visit, he was treated to the full scope of what Mercy Ships does.
The Africa Mercy itself is a small city of crew and volunteers. At any given time the ship has about 450 people onboard trained in anything from seamanship and cooking to medicine and sterilization. A nurse can spend as little as two weeks volunteering, and like all Mercy Ships volunteers, pays his or her travel to and from the location as well as crew fees. The most tenured nurse aboard the Africa Mercy has served seven years. A typical mission in any one city lasts 10 months.
“We’re so much appreciative for AORN and the members of AORN,” said Mercy Ships CEO Sam Smith.
The response initially has been fantastic. We’re just very excited that (AORN members are) responding the way they’re responding, and we look forward to working with them in the future.
In addition to Voight’s representation of AORN with Mercy Ships, Robinson and IOM were able to forge a relationship with Mercy Ships that will bring IOM’s charitable work in instrument repair to the ship. Through IOM, IMS is sending a technician to serve aboard the African Mercy in September.
Find more information on Instruments of Mercy at www.instrumentsofmercy.org. For more on Mercy Ships visit www.mercyships.org.
Read more news in AORN Connections.