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Smile Network medical mission trips – Changing the world one smile at a time
A smile is a universal symbol of friendship, happiness, and humanity. Giving the gift of a beautiful smile is the mission of Smile Network, a Minnesota-based organization that leads medical mission trips to developing countries.
“It’s thrilling to be able to offer care to those who need it, without strings attached,” said Susie Ulrickson, RN, who participated as a recovery nurse on a Smile Network trip to Acapulco, Mexico in late February 2007. “It builds bridges between our nation and theirs.”
As part of a team of medical professionals and volunteers, Smile Network participants travel around the world to perform reconstructive cleft and craniofacial surgeries and related health care services to impoverished children and young adults.
Ulrickson, who works in ambulatory surgery at Children’s West, feels that the experience is life-changing.
“A lot of the time, the indigent population is not even welcome in the hospital,” said Ulrickson. “Where we were in Mexico, they’re often denied treatment and taken right out the door. With Smile Network, they’re led right back in. It takes a bridge in order for them to get the care they need.”
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Michele Stewart holds a child from Peru who is recovering after a cleft surgery.
Susie Ulrickson and Robin Scott together after a surgery in Acapulco, Mexico.
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Michele Stewart, RN, had a similar experience on her Smile Network trip to Lima, Peru in January 2007.
“While working in Lima, many of the families didn’t realize that a facial deformity is a very treatable condition,” said Stewart, also a nurse in ambulatory surgery at Children’s West. “The families have to be told that their child can be normal and have a normal life.”
Seeing how the surgeries have changed the lives of patients and their families is also a rewarding part of the trip.
“We had one little 9 month-old who had been left to die because of her deformities, so she was taken in by her grandmother,” said Ulrickson. “I never saw this grandmother smile until I went to see her in the recovery room. It was incredible, because she knew that her grandchild had been given another chance.”
An eye-opening experience
Though filled with warm and emotional moments, a trip with Smile Network is not a vacation. The first three days of the trips are spent screening potential patients and families to see if they qualify for the surgery. The following five days are spent performing the operations. While the number of operations depends on the availability of beds, space, and surgeons, both Ulrickson and Stewart said their team performed an estimated 65 surgeries on their trip.
Connie Onan, RN, who worked as an operating room nurse on the Peru trip with Stewart, believes that the trips help you grow as a person.
“You first get there and you’re kind of overwhelmed, but by Friday you don’t want to leave,” said Onan, who works at Children’s West with Stewart and Ulrickson. “It’s life-changing, because you develop a greater appreciation for the rest of the world. It really opens your eyes to what’s out there.”
The trips come with professional difficulties as well. For Stewart, communication with the Peruvian nurses was the biggest challenge facing her team.
“Not one of them spoke any English, and neither of us [in the recovery room] spoke any Spanish,” said Stewart. “It took them five days to finally trust us, but by the end of the week we had learned to work as a team with just our sign language.”
Another major difference was in post-operational care.” We believe in the U.S. that parenting is a big part in getting well. Not in Peru,” said Stewart, who was surprised that the parents weren’t allowed to stay on the floor or go to the OR with their young children. “That was a huge cultural difference for us, because we’re so family-centered at Children’s.”
Though each trip is unique, both groups saw a difference in the standards of care in the hospitals during their trip. However, the interaction with the different systems provided an opportunity to learn and grow as professionals and individuals.
In order to prepare the teams for positive interaction with the local health care workers, the Smile Network leaders talk to the volunteers at the beginning of the trip. “We have to remember: It’s their hospital, and we’re on their turf,” said Ulrickson. “We have so much to learn from them."
Other Children’s employees who participated on the Smile Network trip to Peru include Mary Fogarty, RN, Cheryl Rohrbach, RN, Heidi Shafland, RN, Becki Wawra, RN, and Nancy Zeik, RN. Joining Ulrickson on the trip to Acapulco were Robyn Scott, RN, and Alicia Dannewitz, RN.
Both Ulrickson and Stewart plan to participate in another Smile Network trip this October, Ulrickson to Cuzco, Peru, and Stewart to Mexico City. All three nurses recommend volunteering on a medical mission trip to friends and colleagues.
“It is so wonderful to know you’re making a difference,” said Stewart. “The families were so grateful and would just cry, because, to them, their child had been saved.
For more information on participating on a medical mission trip through Smile Network, go to www.smilenetwork.org. For information on the national network, visit www.operationsmile.org.
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