The NICU Team is in Honduras!

Tuesday, October 25th, 2022

The day has finally arrived. For the past year, Friends of Barnabas, the Rotary Club of Farmville and the Merendon Rotary Club have been developing a Rotary International Global grant. This week is the beginning of implementing that grant. We were awarded $120,600 to be used over a three-year period to provide education for those medical professionals caring for the smallest and sickest of infants in the Neonatal Intensive Care Units (NICU), as well as providing much needed equipment used in that care.

Three members of our team arrived in San Pedro Sula around lunchtime. We spent much of the afternoon dividing needed medical supplies into three piles, one for each of the largest NICUs in the city. It felt like we were Santa's elves getting ready for Christmas. We know that these supplies are in great demand and will be a welcome site. Diapers of all sizes, laryngoscope blades and handles, CPAP sets, syringes and tape top the list of items.

The week will be spent training four RNs to become STABLE course instructors. The goal is to train the trainers to teach this course which provides standardization in patient care. They then can continue to train new employees, transport personnel and other caregivers in the NICUs, newborn nurseries, and physicians. Patient acuity levels and patient outcomes will be improved.

The ladies of the only all-female Rotary club in San Pedro Sula, hosted the team out to dinner. They chose a spot where we could see all of San Pedro Sula. It was truly beautiful. Honduras is a beautiful country with many challenges. This week will see much of the beauty and much of the challenge. We are up for the task.

~Patti Wagner, Medical Director