Dr. Jacques and surgical medical resident, Dr. Aurelien Novinsky, review an x-ray with a patient.
This past year, 85% of Haitian healthcare facilities reported staff shortages due to professionals leaving Haiti. Many of these facilities had to reduce services, or close their doors entirely, as a result. Healing Art Missions has been working to address this issue. We recognize that Haiti will need a sufficient number of qualified healthcare providers to address the country's needs in the future, and that the current "brain drain" in Haiti is going to create long-term ripple effects. Since it is not safe to send our physicians into Port-au-Prince to conduct trainings, and since we do not have a clinic in that region to offer hands-on education, we have begun bringing medical residents into the southern peninsula with our Mobile Medical Team.
For two weeks each month, a resident works side-by-side with Dr. Jacques and the other physicians, nurses, and midwives who provide care. Not only are these students gaining important skills and fulfilling their training requirements, but they are also filling important gaps in medical care as specialty physicians become increasingly scarce in Haiti's rural regions. It is our hope that this program will help medical residents visualize themselves as part of the solution to Haiti's problems and demonstrate that it is possible to remain in Haiti and practice medicine.