Just two weeks after Sister Marilyn Marie Minter and SM Inga Borko moved into their new Felician Mission complex in Jacmel, Haiti, Dr. Kathleen Vito, Ph.D., Professor of Nursing at Felician University, and two of her graduate students traveled to the Felician Sisters Mission in Haiti to share their nursing skills and offer clinical service to a country still recovering from the devastating earthquake of 2010.

Accompanying Dr. Vito were Marie Cadet, RN, BSN, from Maplewood, NJ, and Julie Grayson, RN, BSN, from Ridgewood, NJ. Together with their professor, Marie and Julie worked with the Mother Angela Mobile Health Clinic and made home health care visits to some of the poorest neighborhoods in Jacmel.

The students and faculty worked over 40 hours weeks, giving advanced-practice nursing care to residents. Dr. Yves, the Medical Director of the Mother Angela Mobile Health Clinic, was instrumental in functioning as a preceptor to the students so they could prescribe medications during the clinics just as if they were in the U.S. doing their clinical hours.

“Both students are in the Family Nurse Practitioner Track MSN program, and the experience of Marie and Julie in Haiti was part of their final clinical coursework,” Dr. Vito said. “Both will be graduating this summer as Primary Care Nurses.”

“I am so proud of Dr. Vito, Marie, and Julie for demonstrating our Franciscan values and offering their time and expertise to help those in need,” said Dr. Anne Prisco, Felician University President. “Their presence brought joy and comfort to their Haitian brothers and sisters.”