PIH/ZL launches new medical residency and nursing programs in Haiti

By Donna Barry, PIH Advocacy and Policy Director

On Monday afternoon, August 15, an amalgam of seemingly disconnected partners gathered in St. Marc – a city in Haiti’s lower Artibonite – to lunch and informally celebrate the launch of the new Family Residency and Nursing Professional Development Programs. As recently posted, Partners In Health/Zanmi Lasante (PIH/ZL) are new grant recipients from the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund. This grant will support a new program for family practice medical residents in St Marc, a critically important specialty in Haiti, and education for auxiliary nurses at St. Nicholas Hospital, also located in St. Marc. 

Loune Viaud and Madame Irma Bois watch Monday's ceremony.

Paul Farmer joined the group, which included: Dean Gladys Prosper, State Medical University; Irma Bois, Director of Nursing, Haiti Ministry of Health; Altez Toussaint, Member of Haitian Parliament; Patrick Almazor, Director Clinical Practice, Zanmi Lasante; Loune Viaud, Director of Operations, Zanmi Lasante; Sheila Davis, Director of Nursing, PIH; Esther Boucicault Stanislas, FEBS; and current medical residents at Zanmi Lasante studying community medicine; a surgical team from Boston and North Carolina; representatives from MediShare and several other local NGOs as well as PIH/ZL staff.  

Impromptu speeches focused on the need for more broadly trained doctors and nurses to meet the needs of patients in Haiti. Dr. Patrick Almazor mentioned the importance of family practice physicians in the public health care system as it is only the government that can confer the right to health in Haiti. 

There is a very big difference between learning medicine in a hospital or university setting in Port-au-Prince and going out to communities to see what they need,” said Benjamin Jean Michel, a medical resident at ZL. “This is the first time we have been able to do that and have learned so much. We hope to be the generation of doctors that understands what social medicine is and how to address the social determinants of health.

Drs. Selwyn Rogers and Paul Farmer spoke to PIH/ZL staff, medical residents and nurses.

Dr. Selwyn Rogers from Brigham and Women’s Hospital added that he felt his team was serving as “surgical accompagnateurs” this week in St Marc and that, “… while progress may be slow, we are in this for the long haul.” Madame Bois from Haiti’s MOH highlighted the importance of standardizing nursing training across Haiti and praised the opportunity this grant presents by funding a pilot project on just this topic.

At first it seemed such a strange conglomeration of folks, pulled together last minute by Loune in order to take advantage of so many important people and partners’ presence in St. Marc. But, by the end of the afternoon, as is often the case in Haiti, it seemed the perfect match of talents and personalities had gathered to support this nascent project and to voice their ongoing partnership with the poor in Haiti.