Canada
Bringing midwifery back to a northern Canadian community
Heather Heinrichs is a midwife working in remote Hay River in Canada’s Northwest Territories – a sub-arctic town of 3,500 nestled on the south bank of Great Slave Lake. Until five years ago, women from Hay River who wanted to give birth had to fly or drive around the huge expanse of lake to deliver in Yellowknife, the Territorial capital, or travel hundreds of kilometres south to larger centres.
Guatemala
Finding the lost girls: HPV vaccine in Guatemala
Ana Cristina Gonzalez has been a nurse for 14 years. She works in the Health Center of the Ciudad Vieja municipality, department of Sacatepéquez, Guatemala. Today, Ana Cristina is going out to the community to apply the HPV vaccine to girls who did not attend classes on the day the vaccine was applied in their schools. On the days Ana is out and about vaccinating in the community, she carries with her a thermo-carrier for vaccines and a backpack with information and authorizations for families to sign.
Jamaica
Emergency nursing in Jamaica
Trecia Simone Stewart is an emergency nurse working in a hospital situated between two major highways and what she describes as some “volatile” communities in Spanish Town, Jamaica. The hospital treats a large number of trauma patients with injuries including gunshot wounds and road traffic accidents. It has also recently had to manage a large dengue outbreak.