Collaborating Globally to Transform Haiti's Healthcare

Purpose:

Haiti is facing a serious healthcare delivery crisis (Jerome & Ivers, 2010).)  The Haitian American Nurses Association (HANA) is addressing this issue by collaborating with corporations/organizations in order to initiate projects that will transform Haiti’s health care. Two main focuses of HANA have been community health and disaster preparedness in Haiti. The purpose of the Faculté des Sciences Infirmières de Léogane (FSIL)/Disaster Preparedness and community projects, sponsored by HANA, is to establish sustainable non-governmental policies and procedures for disasters at FSIL and the surrounding community, through Worldwide Community First Responder, Inc (WCFR).  

Methods:

The community health projects were created to ensure that FSIL students provide necessary community health care. WCFR nurse educators guided FSIL students to assess community health through health surveys and to analyze both access to and adequacy of existing community resources. The importance of health promotion in the community was emphasized.

Results:

The results were very promising. The FSIL/Disaster Preparedness and community projects engaged nurse educators and student nurses in making FSIL and its surrounding community safer, more prepared, and more resilient for future disasters. It also contributed to the improvement of the health of the community in Leogane, Haiti.

Conclusion:

The collaboration between HANA and WCFR has proven to be beneficial for all stakeholders. Being that nursing is such a vital segment of the healthcare delivery system, more emphasis should be put on building capacity through collaboration. Similar partnerships between nursing organizations and corporations must be sought and established.