Nursing Heart have been changing Guatemalan lives in the most impoverished rural communities; bringing US nurses serving more than 4000 needy lives per year. Que Pasa is honoured to feature this NGO.
Nursing Heart, Inc (NHI), https://nursingheart.org/ now officially known in Guatemala as Asociación Corazon de Enfermería (ACE) was formed by Ron Noecker, RN, in 2011 to allow the care of nurses to respond to some of the complex health issues. Today, NHI/ACE serves over 4,000 Guatemalan’s per year and offers a variety of services through the help of nursing groups from the United States. The structure provides an opportunity for cultural exchange between communities in Guatemala and providers from the US.
In their 2017-2018 season over 160 participants from the US joined ACE to help in the mission. Sara Castañeda, who has been with the organization since its first days, describes how the organization has grown through the past seven years. “I feel NHI has offered hope to many people. In our first season we had five groups but this year we will have 16. I have watched our organization evolve and we are now a legally constituted organization in Guatemala.”
Dr. Rhonda Goodman, PhD, of Florida Atlantic University, brought Nursing Heart’s first group of nurses to Guatemala in the 2012-2013 season. This year she will bring six groups. She wrote recently, “Over the past six and a half years, NHI has assisted me to bring several hundred students on 24 study abroad trips, serving 19 communities of indigenous Maya populations. The students write in their journals that they are ‘forever changed’ as a result of this experience and they rediscover why they wanted to be nurses in the first place. They learn that caring can cross all cultural and language barriers and both the caregiver and the person cared for reap many rewards from the experience.”
Nursing Heart/ACE also welcomes teams from schools in South Dakota, Missouri, Minnesota, Maryland, Arizona and South Carolina. Nursing Heart/ACE has wonderful Guatemalan doctors and partners who form part of their teams. This spring NHI welcomed its first Guatemalan Clinical Director, César Santos. “In my job as Clinical Director I will have many opportunities to improve the quality of health alongside the leaders in the communities where we work.”
Javier Orellana started working one year ago with ACE. “There are many details to prepare for a group’s arrival so that the group doesn’t have to worry about supplies and arrangements and can have a satisfying, productive and fun time. I enjoy getting to know everyone in the group.” The patients are thankful for the healthcare assistance. “My work in the pharmacy is very satisfactory because I can see and feel the gratitude of the people who receive their medicines for free thanks to the support of ACE and the different universities from the United States,” says Blanqui López, NHI/ACE Pharmacist.
Learn more about Nursing Heart, Inc. at NursingHeart.org.
