A HORSHAM nurse will use her medical training to volunteer in Nepal from February.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Sarah Patterson will be part of the Wild Medic Program and work alongside other nurses and paramedics in rural Napalese communities.
“A lot of communities still haven’t rebuilt after the earthquake last year, so we will be setting up temporary health camps,” she said.
“We will be doing general health checks, teaching them about wound dressing and training community volunteers so they can pass on that knowledge to other people.”
“I always wanted to volunteer overseas, but in the medical field it can be a bit difficult.”
Miss Patterson will visit two villages – Chitre in the foothills of the Himalayas and Lapisphedi, near Kathmandu.
“Chitre’s health post once served about 1000 people however in the 2015 earthquake it was completely destroyed,” she said.
“We will run a free mobile medical camp for any villagers requiring assessment and basic health care and run training programs for health care volunteers.
“After Chitre we will be heading to Lapisphedi, where we will be working in the village school with the youth committee to organise health related activities.”
Miss Patterson said she was looking forward to the experience. “I’m really excited – I’m heading over about a month beforehand to travel,” she said.
“I think it will be a pretty eye-opening experience to see how everything is run in third world countries with poor medical access.
“Plus there will be foreign diseases that I wouldn’t see in Australia.”
Wild Medic Program volunteers are required to raise $300 before they go.
Miss Patterson is aiming for $500 and she has set up an online fundraising page.
“We are given a goal to raise money, which will go towards buying medication and supplies and taking it out to the communities,” she said.
“I’ve raised about $350 so far, which is great.”
Miss Patterson grew up in Horsham but works as a nurse in Melbourne.
She returned to the region to work at the Wimmera Base Hospital before her trip.
She said people could donate online at gofundme.com/sarahs-wild-medic-project.