I was deployed to Haiti as a proud member of the International Medical Surgical Response Team, and witnessed first-hand the terrible devastation in the days following the earthquake. The experience was overwhelming and still haunts me.

Because I am an educator at heart, I decided to turn my experience into something positive for my staff at Mercy Hospital. Creating "The Role of the Registered Nurse During a Disaster" has helped me heal emotionally. It is a gift to my colleagues who have prayed and cried with me, and whose support has sustained me. I am inspired by the amazing resilience of the Haitian people. Despite the devastation, they still have faith and hope.

Yamile Fuentes, RN
Nurse Clinician
Mercy Hospital
Miami, FL

In early March, I will be leaving for Haiti with a team of 27 medical and support personnel. Plans were in place before the earthquake to conduct a 12-day clinic near the northern city of Cap Haitian. Now, we will respond to need wherever it arises.

While the situation is daunting, the words of Mother Teresa ring true, "If I were to think of the crowds, I'd never begin anything. It's the individual that matters." We have the honor of offering individuals in Haiti the compassion and care that roots nursing.

Todd Spencer
Student Nurse
St. Margaret's School of Nursing
University of Pittsburgh Medical Center

Medical missions have always been my passion. I traveled to Haiti on January 19, just one week after the catastrophic earthquake. Once there, I had the privilege of working with a diverse group of physicians, nurses, and paramedics from North Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee, Hungary, and Haiti. We performed orthopedic surgeries, mostly amputations on children. We also assisted in getting patients transferred to the USNS Comfort.

There are no words to describe the smells, sights, and sounds I witnessed in Haiti, nor are there words to express the feelings I have regarding my trip. It was truly a life-changing experience.

Mary M. Pulliam, RN
Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center

When the earthquake hit, five Children's Memorial Hospital nurses were just completing a week-long medical mission in Haiti. We were part of a 23-member team from Little by Little, an organization that provides healthcare to the remote mountain village of Gramothe.

Immediately after the quake, we became first responders at a nearby hospital with very limited staff and supplies. We cared for patients with fractures and gaping wounds while providing IV therapy, antibiotics, and pain management. Our nurses assisted in the surgical suite and helped suture and dress wounds. Although we could not help everyone, we were able to make a difference to many during those first hours of devastation.

Janice Nuuhiwa, MSN, APN/CNS, CPON
Clinical Nurse Specialist
Children's Memorial Hospital
Chicago, IL

I am a pediatric emergency room nurse. I arrived in Haiti six days after the earthquake with Samaritan's Purse. Based out of the Haiti Baptist Mission, I watched as the 78-bed hospital swelled with injured people – most lying on the floor. I was the only pediatric nurse available at the time, so the team relied on my expertise to aid the hurting children. For two weeks, I gave medicine, changed dressings, and transported patients from other hospitals. As more people come to the aid of Haitians, a glimmer of hope for healing can be seen through the pain of tragedy and devastation.

Jennifer Gresham, RN, BSN
Presbyterian Hospital
Charlotte, NC

Since the devastating earthquake struck, Massachusetts General Hospital has mobilized to help those affected by the disaster. To date, we've sent nearly 60 nurses to Haiti. Their assignments include deployments with a Mass General-sponsored clinical outreach team; a Boston-based relief team that is part of a national network; Project HOPE, stationed aboard the USNS Comfort; and Partners in Health. In the early days, team members reported dire conditions, severe shortages of drugs and medical supplies, and many heartbreaking stories. They were equally struck by the spirit of the Haitian people. This spirit inspires them as they continue to express their humanity by doing all they can to help those around them.

Jeanette Ives Erickson, RN, MS, FAAN
Patient Care Services
Massachusetts General Hospital

As an RN, I was part of a team of 14 people scheduled to go on a church-sponsored medical mission to Haiti on January 20. When the earthquake struck on January 12, the location where we were to work was heavily damaged and the airline cancelled our flight.

Following the quake, it was clear that the people of Haiti desperately needed our medications and supplies. So we switched our focus to getting those supplies into the country, even though we could not go as a team. The long-term need for medical support is great. Our plan is to go to Haiti once commercial flights have resumed and we have collected more donated medications and supplies.

Isabel MacKinney-Smith, RN, BSN, CCM
Care Manager, Chronic Disease
UPMC St. Margaret

It's 2 a.m. in Haiti, and you are one of two nurses with 76 patients in need of IV hydration, antibiotics, and pain medication. Six of these patients are in need of intensive care; another is in labor. Despite your best efforts, you just can't get it all done. What do you do? We woke up the exhausted day-shift nurses, tired doctors, and worried family members. They responded willingly in whatever capacity was needed. No tasks were too menial. At that moment we were all nurses: the best kind, the ones who care.

Jacqueline Pennant RN, BSN, CCRN
Holy Cross Hospital
Fort Lauderdale, FL

Haiti, cracked by the earthquake, shines bright with hope. When we say, "I am sorry for what happened to your country and your people," we hear the same response: "It is God's will." The Haitian people's deep sense of faith binds them together, their one true strength unable to be crushed.

As their world crumbled, holding hands, a mother and child ran outside. She died, he was trapped. His crushed arm required amputation and became infected. Eight days later, as we began treatment, morphine glazed his eyes. Yet he still screamed. A nurse whispered, "Shhhh, God is with you." He calmed and responded, "I know God is with me. I am alive."

The earth's shaking affirmed the Haitians' unbreakable strength, and I am blessed to be witness to it.

Brenda Miller, RN, MSN
Nursing Director, PICU
Massachusetts General Hospital

I served as the Deputy Commander of DMAT MA-1 under the Department of Health and Human Services. Ours was the first U.S. Government medical response team in Haiti, with responsibility for setting up a medical field hospital at GHESKIO University. I was second in command, overseeing the medical/surgical site operations, logistics, administration, and planning. By the end of our two-week rotation, we'd seen more than 500 patients, performed 66 surgical procedures, delivered nine babies, and had one death. Some have asked why I do this work, and I have an easy answer: Most of the time, I get more out of it than I give. It's a very rewarding thing to do.

Jacquelyn Nally, RN, BSN
Emergency Department Nurse
Massachusetts General Hospital

The day after the earthquake struck Haiti, I was fortunate to deploy with the IMSuRT and the MA-1 DMAT teams: a most remarkable group of individuals who, for two weeks, functioned as a cohesive and effective unit. In collaboration with several other federal and local clinical staff, we established a field hospital that provided surgical care, critical care, and air evacuation capability, all of which helped decompress the local medical infrastructure.

Perhaps even more exemplary was the performance of those staff not directly involved in the response—the "home team"—who had to fill in for us in our absence. Not only did we not hear a single complaint, but the warmth and gratitude with which the team received us upon our return has been, to say the least, overwhelming.

Joseph Roche, RN
Surgical ICU
Massachusetts General Hospital

When the first group of Haitian earthquake survivors arrived at Tampa General Hospital on January 26, three University of South Florida nursing students were on hand to offer some special assistance. Sherhonda Fevrier, Joanne Leo, and Vatanie Turenne all speak fluent Creole, and volunteered to serve as translators for the critically injured patients.

Although they'd already worked full shifts that day, the students desperately wanted to help. Each had many relatives in Haiti; Fevrier's cousin had been killed in the quake, and other family members were homeless. "We felt blessed to be able to do something," Fevrier recalls.

Throughout the evening, as adults and children arrived with severe burns, spinal cord injuries, and broken bones, the nursing students comforted and reassured them. They explained procedures, helped fill out forms, and translated for ER staff. Leo described the CT scan to a frightened young man whose spine had been crushed, paralyzing him from the chest down. Fevrier translated for a 23-year-old man whose car had exploded during the quake, causing third degree burns on his arms and face.

When the three finally went home, they were exhausted but grateful. "We couldn't go to Haiti, so God brought Haiti to us," Leo says.

Sherhonda Fevrier, Joanne Leo, and Vatanie Turenne
University of South Florida Nursing School
Tampa General Hospital

Upon hearing the news of the earthquake in Haiti, my heart went out to the already impoverished country. Immediately, I knew I wanted to be involved at any possible level. I had reached a point in my life where I had been fortunate to receive many blessings. It was now time for me to pay it forward; to become an agent of change. I shed many tears while caring for my patients, saddened because I wanted to do more than I could physically provide. But I am thankful for the opportunity to serve in the capacity that I did.

Marjorie May, RN, CCRN, ANM
Holy Cross Hospital
Fort Lauderdale, FL

In February, I traveled to Haiti with an organization called Virginia Mennonite Missions (VMM) to help run mobile medical clinics in underserved areas. We focused our efforts on the tent cities where many Haitians have been living since the earthquake. Our group included five nurses, a physician, and a translator. During our two-week trip, we conducted eight medical clinics and treated more than 750 patients with a variety of traumatic and general medical/surgical complaints. We referred a few of these patients to established military hospitals for treatment beyond our capabilities. Although we know that our visit changed lives, I believe that we were changed even more, both as practitioners and members of the global community.

Micah Puffer, BSN-RN
Emergency Department
Martha Jefferson Hospital
Charlottesville, VA

At 8 a.m., I received a call to leave for Haiti, went to my CNO for permission, and without hesitation she let me go with her blessing. I was on a plane by 5 o'clock that evening, just three days after the earthquake. This was my fifth international relief mission and my second disaster. We practiced what I like to call "Civil War" medicine. There were no real supplies, no running water, nothing but a lot of creativity. My mother, who is also an RN, went with me. We slept on the ground for five days, we laughed and cried, but in the end we felt truly honored to have had the privilege to help the people of Haiti. I wanted to touch the lives of the people there, but I think they touched my life and impacted my outlook just as much as I did theirs. I would do it again in one second.

Christine Wade RN, MSN, CEN, TNCC
Nurse Manager, Emergency Room
Jersey City Medical Center
Jersey City, NJ

I volunteered at a field hospital and medical clinic in Leogane, Haiti. I'll never forget the mother who had just delivered her baby in a Tap Tap (a Haitian taxi). After I moved her onto a cot, the taxi driver handed me a big, dark, wooly blanket, where I found not one newborn, but two — placentas still attached! They weighed in at 1.06 kg (2.3 pounds) and 1.16 kg (2.6 pounds) and went home two days later as beautiful, healthy, breast-feeding babies. In the U.S., they would still be in the NICU. The resiliency of the Haitian people is astonishing!

Jacqui Collins RN, MSN
Clinical Nurse Specialist
Massachusetts General Hospital
Boston, MA

The patient tent was packed with cots. I saw child after child with casts, external fixators, amputated limbs, wounds, and dressings. There were no monitors, oxygen, vital sign machines, ambu bags, or thermometers. I felt numb. How could I possibly manage 25 patients with no equipment and no real organization?

Then I saw my first patient. Fresh from surgery, she was crying out in pain. As I gave her morphine, relief spread across her face. She wouldn't suffer on my shift. None of them would.

This is how my night prioritized itself: pain relief, antibiotics, managing IV fluids. The gratitude from children and families was overwhelming; their smiles, hugs, and "mercis" spoke volumes. Of course I could do this – it's the reason I'm a nurse.

Mary Ernst
Nursing Director, Cardiac ICU
Miami Children's Hospital
Miami, FL

In February, I traveled to Haiti to provide wound care as part of the University of Miami MediShares program. Our "hospital" was a complex of tents at the Port au Prince Airport. We worked 12-hour days in heat, humidity, and dust. The wounds were horrendous. We completed 18+ major dressing change and debridement cases per day. Other wound teams provided bedside care and staffed an outpatient wound area. Thanks to my six years of French, I could communicate without an interpreter. This work was the most significant thing that I have done in nursing to date. It was a privilege to provide this service to the Haitian people.

Susan Stelton RN, MSN, ACNS-BC, CWOCN
Medical-Surgical Clinical Nurse Specialist
Banner Good Samaritan Medical Center
Phoenix, AZ

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