Global Partnerships for Guatemalan’s Health and Wellbeing
Nursing Heart leads three core groups that participate in our global partnerships: licensed and registered nurses, graduate school nurse practitioner candidates, and university nurse undergraduates. In their work with Nursing Heart, they receive cultural education and perspectives on the importance of the health care they provide to Guatemala’s rural communities.
Through the Nursing Heart global partnerships’ program, visiting nurses and student nurses gain experience in acute care, women’s health, child wellness, diabetes, hypertension, and more. They also develop skills in intercultural relationships and the social dynamics at play in the provision of health care anywhere in the world.
Nursing Heart Programs are in the following areas:
Clinical JORNADAS for Advanced Practice Nurses or Nurse Practitioners in Training (“NP Groups”)
Undergraduate Nursing
Community Health Worker Program
Diabetic and Hypertensive Clinics
Public Health, Construction, and “Chapina” Stoves
CLINICAL JORNADAS for Advanced Practice Nurses or Nurse Practitioners in Training
("NP Groups")
Careful developmental preparation is made for advanced practice nurses to come to underserved communities to share their expertise and grow in diagnostic skill. Working under Guatemalan doctors, practitioners have a pharmacy at their disposal to offer to patients in need. These clinical training opportunities usually include a simultaneous cervical cancer screening clinic. Cervical cancer remains the number one killer of women of maternal age in Guatemala.
Our COVID Response
The Guatemalan government and the national ministry of health lifted most covid restrictions in October 2022, and medical teams are being welcomed back along with general tourism.
The pandemic severely limited access to medical care for the remote communities that Nursing Heart has long supported through our programs, beyond the normal and significant barriers to access that have historically existed for them.
Since then, those community partners have consistently asked Nursing Heart when visiting nurses will return to once again help coordinate much-needed medical care.