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Sorting Out Your Volunteer Options

Narrowing your search for the ideal medical mission can be overwhelming. Literally thousands of organizations offer volunteer opportunities for nurses and other medical professionals. Some are operated on a shoestring while others have billions of dollars in the budget, but all have a profound effect on the health of the world’s people.

The International Medical Volunteers Association (IMVA) is a good starting point. A comprehensive clearinghouse of information, IMVA offers education and resources to medical volunteers, and connects volunteers with the international organizations that need them.

Volunteer opportunities fall into two main categories: long-term care and disaster relief. Within each category are international agencies that work with the United Nations, such as the World Health Organization (WHO); individual country government agencies, such as the United States Agency for International Development (USAID); and non-governmental organizations (NGOs), which include large groups like the International Red Cross Red Crescent and Oxfam, as well as small, sometimes church-based or missionary groups.

Want to teach or do something beyond straight clinic work? Some organizations offer alternatives. Health Volunteers Overseas places volunteers in developing countries overseas to train nurses and nurse anesthetists through lectures and clinical instruction.

Religious groups
Some church-related groups use medical missions to combine healthcare with religious outreach, while others use them simply as opportunities for the church to help those who are less fortunate. Many ask volunteers to certify they agree with the organization’s belief fundamentals.
Catholic Medical Missions Board
American Jewish World Service
CB International (Christian)

Pediatric medical missions
Some groups focus solely on pediatric care. The largest is UNICEF, created by the UN General Assembly to help European children after World War II. From shaping policy to providing supplies and services, these groups change the lives of children around the world.
UNICEF
Friends Without a Border
Healing the Children
Operation Rainbow

Disaster relief organizations
Groups that respond to crisis situations provide both medical and humanitarian aid to victims of natural disasters or refugees of war. Many of these organizations ask for longer-term commitments from workers.
Doctors of the World
International Relief Teams
Doctors Without Borders

Practice-specific groups
Some organizations specialize in certain types of medicine. If you have practice-specific skills, you may want to choose a group that uses your talents most effectively.
International Volunteers in Urology
SEE (Surgical Eye Expedition) International
Interplast (Reconstructive Surgery)