Extra socks, 4 a.m. wake-up calls, and plenty of opportunities to provide care; these are just a few of the elements that make up a day for nurse volunteers with Registered Nurse Response Network (RNRN) serving aboard the Military Sealift Command hospital ship USNS Comfort (T-AH 20). RNRN is a disaster relief project of National Nurses United and the California Nurses Foundation.

It is now two months into the Continuing Promise 2015 (CP-15) mission, on which the nurses have joined joint military personnel and health care professionals, engineers, veterinarians and environmental health experts for a humanitarian assistance mission that includes mission stops in 11 countries in South America, Central America and the Caribbean. CP-15 is a U.S. Southern Command sponsored mission, under the operational control of U.S. Naval Forces Southern Command/ U.S. 4^th Fleet.

The CP-15 crew has over 1000 members from various Navy commands but also additional support from the Army, Air Force and Non-Governmental Organizations. The mission was initially launched in 2007; this year expands on previous CP deployments, building on relationships created in previous years. Participants, including RNRN volunteers, will work together to increase the capacities of countries and communities to provide for themselves, making each visit a subject matter expert exchange.

RNRN volunteers treat patients aboard Comfort in a pre-op or post-anesthesia care unit setting and also work in clinics set-up ashore in each country. The clinics are sometimes set up in gymnasiums, and volunteers work in high heat conditions and physically demanding environments. The clinic sites are cordoned off into separate areas for dental, optometry, physical therapy, women's health, general medicine, and pediatrics. RNRN nurses typically work in the waiting areas, gathering vital signs, weighing children or working with an interpreter at triage sites set-up outside the buildings, often times covered by tents for shade from the hot sun.

“Today, I’m on shore to help run a general clinic that will see several hundred patients,” RNRN volunteer Tim Launius said from Belize. “There were over a hundred people waiting before we got here today.”

Launius later described a similar scene in Guatemala, where they saw 600 patients a day at two clinic sites. “The patients began lining-up around 3 a.m. or 4 a.m. each day, at both clinics. When we arrived, the line had extended around the block on which the building is located.” 

“It’s an amazing feeling to be able to help someone and to see them walk away knowing they are in a better position,” said Amy Bowen, an emergency room nurse from Ozark, Mo. “It’s such a rewarding trip. The [patients] show so much appreciation. I just want to help as much as I can.”

At a recent stop in Puerto Cabezas, Nicaragua, RNRN nurses were part of a team of military and nongovernmental organization medical volunteers who worked alongside partner nation medical personnel to provide no-cost medical and dental services to Nicaraguan citizens. Cathy Kennedy, a registered nurse with RNRN, described the trip as rewarding in an email update about their work around the Nicaragua stop.

“Everyone going to the medical site will be transported via helicopter out there,” Kennedy wrote. "There is a strict 'muster' time of 4 a.m.  We have to be prepared to potentially spend the night, so we have to bring a shirt, flashlight, feet spray, hat, socks - all in a small backpack. The nurses are fabulous and tough as needles! We all jump right in and help out.”

Comfort departed Norfolk, Va., in April and is scheduled to return in September. During that time, groups of volunteers along with the joint-military team of personnel will perform hundreds of surgical procedures at no cost, treat thousands of patients, reinforce local infrastructure, and provide veterinary services in Belize, Colombia, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Jamaica, Nicaragua, Panama, Dominica and Honduras. Their goals include improving living conditions in host countries, as well as strengthening U.S. relationships with partner nations. A multinational planning staff surveyed doctors, nurses, dentists and other local professionals in the host nations to develop a set of priorities on the ground.

RNRN, a project of National Nurses United, the nation's largest organization of RNs, was formed in 2004 in the aftermath of the South Asia tsunami, when the need for nurses was not being met by traditional disaster relief organizations. Since that time, RNRN has sent direct-care nurse volunteers to assist following Hurricane Katrina, the massive earthquake in Haiti, and Super Typhoon Haiyan/Yolanda, among other deployments. RNRN previously participated in the Continuing Promise mission in 2010.

If you would like to make a tax-deductible donation to support the RNRN disaster relief fund, go to http://nationalnursesunited.org/rnrn-disaster-relief-fund