Five Denver School of Nursing Students Help Open Haiti Clinic, Provide Needed Healthcare

Five Denver School of Nursing (DSN) students, accompanied by faculty member Barb Wilkerson, worked with the nonprofit, LOVE Takes Root, and another Haitian nursing team to open a medical clinic at La Concorde in Jacmel, Haiti, said Dr. Marcia Bankirer, president of DSN (www.denverschoolofnursing.edu).

The DSN team completed its ninth Global Health Perspectives (GHP) internship in Haiti in collaboration with LOVE Takes Root, the nonprofit co-founded by Wilkerson and her husband. “Students, faculty and five Haitian nurses equipped the new clinic with donated supplies and medical equipment,” Bankirer said. “Our nursing teams checked hemoglobin on all 60 children and organized treatment for those who were anemic.”

DSN students Mike Curry, Erin Segall, Jennifer Trammell, Lauren VanOrder and Kaylee Vatter, led by Barbara Wilkerson, pediatric nurse practitioner and DSN adjunct clinical instructor, set up a system for orphanage children to receive medication in the clinic as needed, Wilkerson said.

The DSN team was presented with treating a child who underwent a grand mal seizure and administered to his medical needs, Wilkerson noted.  “The DSN nursing interns spent a great deal of time in the operating room of St. Michele Public Hospital. The students also engaged with a mountain village to do clinical work.  And they helped establish a future relationship for ongoing community health and treatment.”

Wilkerson and her husband, Dr. Rick Wilkerson, have served and partnered with Haitian healthcare teams since 2010 and founded the nonprofit, LOVE Takes Root (www.lovestakesroot.org). Their organization strives to break the cycle of poverty through a commitment to local empowerment and an establishment of roots of trust and health in Haitian-owned and managed programs.

About Denver School of Nursing (DSN)

Denver School of Nursing, 1401 19th St., Denver, is a private, post-secondary college that provides educational programs and training for nursing professionals. The college specializes in offering rigorous curriculum and clinical site-based academic programs toward associate and bachelor degrees in nursing. DSN is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission (HLC), (www.hlcommission.org) (800-621-7440). Its associate and baccalaureate programs are accredited by the Accreditation Commission for Education in Nursing (ACEN), 3343 Peachtree Road NE, Suite 850, Atlanta, GA 30326 (404-975-5000). The college is granted full approval for its associate and bachelors nursing programs by the Colorado State Board of Nursing. For more information, call 303-292-0015 or visit www.denverschoolofnursing.edu.