On June 18, Paulsboro resident Sharon Byrne will embark on a health outreach mission to Haiti with her family nurse practitioner students from Drexel University.

Im the track director for the family nurse practitioner program at Drexel in addition to my clinical practice at Cooper University Hospital in Camden, said Byrne. Theres been a major push for our students to get involved in the community and do health outreach, and I was approached by someone in the Philadelphia-based organization Explorers Sans Frontieres. Basically, theyre a very reputable non-profit organization that has been doing outreach for a number of years in Haiti, Senegal and more. Theyve done 18 missions to Haiti thus far.

Byrne said she was approved by Drexels international studies office for the experience for her students in their final semester.

This is our first outreach program for the masters nursing department, she said. We will be there for five days running a one-day well child clinic at a school near Port-au-Prince, coordinating a full-day womens health clinic and spending three days in Port-au-Prince addressing chronic and acute health care needs of anyone from infant to older adult.

Five nurse practitioner students will accompany Byrne, as well as Drexels director of international studies, a representative from ESF and several other medical professionals and volunteers. The group has received donations from pharmacies and medical supply companies for the mission.

Basically, Haiti is still very lacking in routine health care, and thats one of the major things we want to address, she said. Many of their health needs revolve around issues that we also face here like diabetes, hypertension and high cholesterol. A lot of what well be doing is addressing those needs and doing preventative health education with patients and some of the providers there.

Byrne said she and her students are looking forward to the trip because they feel there are still a lot of under-served people in Haiti who have health needs that have not been recognized since the earthquake.

The students are not only getting some clinical practice, but theyre getting the chance to go on a humanitarian type of mission, said Byrne. Just to work with people from other cultures and learn sensitivity is a great opportunity. They can become liaisons for health care and the United States. We hope to let people in Haiti know that we are still genuinely interested in their health and well-being.

Contact reporter Jessica Driscoll at jdriscoll@southjerseymedia.com.

See the article here:

Paulsboro resident leads health care mission to Haiti