Why We Stand Out:

There are over 3 million Registered Nurses (RNs) in the United States.  These nurses encompass a profession that is centered around healing and health education.  Many nurses will tell you they chose nursing to help people.  This mentality is demonstrated time and again  from hospice nurses comforting the dying cancer patient to the public-health nurses campaigning against malaria in Africa. Nursing Beyond Borders wants to mobilize the expertise of these nurses to the developing world in order to improve the health of children, and by doing so change the mindset of a generation.  Through education, prevention, and partnering with local providers we hope to improve the longevity of everyone in these developing countries. Our model is sustainable because we connect patients to local providers to continue care even after our team leaves. We build databases for subsequent visits, and we track our progress to ensure our visits are making an impact.

Obstacles:

• All of the orphanages, schools, clinics, and shelters we visit are in need of supplies. These include; medications, lab kits, hygiene supplies, and educational materials. These supplies need to be collected for every trip either through donation or purchase, and then taken across the border by our teams. We hope to get most supplies donated or at least purchased at cost to minimize the price.

• Most organizations require the RN to raise all of their own trip costs. This can be anywhere from $700-$3000 depending on the location and length of the trip.

• We calculate that one trip with 10 RNs costs $7,000-$20,000 depending on location, length of the trip, and needed supplies for the children.

This is why we need YOUR help to raise these funds to get the nurses into these highly impoverished areas.  It is no small task, but one that we know we can accomplish with your generous support.

Our Story:

The first mission trip I took was part of a public health project.  Our goal was to build a health database for an organization that had constructed a school to help keep orphaned children off the streets.  After graduating I went on other mission trips, which hosted one day clinics in far-flung villages in the hills of Guatemala.  The lines outside these clinics went on for what seemed like miles, and the days flew by.  My heart went out to these villagers who not only had minimal exposure to healthcare, but also little to no education on preventative measures they could take to prevent such simple things as constipation, headaches (from dehydration), and tooth decay.  The clinics were hard work, but the outcomes were rewarding, and knowing what a difference our team was making made it all worth it.  I couldn't help but think as we left these villages we had only touched a small portion of the world's poverty-stricken people in the world.  This trip planted the seed that would soon grow into Nursing Beyond Borders.

After school I began my career as a Pediatric Intensive Care Unit nurse.  I signed up for various mission trips, but they were always with part of a medical or surgical team.  I still kept coming back to the issue that there were so many more nurses than doctors in the world, and that there had to be a way we could use our nursing skillset to help the world's poor without having to be part of a medical or surgical team.  But what can nurses do without doctors? 

At the core of any nursing program is a focus on preventing disease and health education.  Every RN has the equivalent of a PhD in preventing the spread of germs. My first skill check  in nursing school was ensuring that I knew proper hand washing technique. Yes, it was graded, and yes there is a right and wrong way to do this, but I digress. Most volunteer organizations focus on fixing problems that already exist, and few focus on preventing the cause of the disease. Not focusing on the cause is equivalent to putting band-aids on gaping wounds, without teaching how to prevent the wound in the first place.  Nursing Beyond Borders was created to fix the problem at its source.   

We are partnering with local NGO’s and local providers to fix disease before it starts, and to provide a sustainable model of care.  If healthcare is so scarce in the developing world why not educate the masses on ways to avoid the need for it.  It is the collaboration between our donors, volunteers, and providers that make this endeavor possible. Thank you for joining me in making this dream a reality.

-Linzi O’Laughlin

Founder/President