The Leogane Nursing School
Faculté des Sciences Infirmières de l’Université Épiscopale d’Haïti (FSIL) in Leogane, Haiti
Family Health Ministries (FHM) has supported FSIL since it opened in 2005 by giving lectures on women’s health, involving nursing students in community health research, contributing to nursing student scholarships and hiring its graduates to work at the Carmelle Voltaire Women’s Health Center.
FSIL has been a pioneer in nursing education in Haiti. It was the first nursing school to offer a Bachelor of Science nursing education degree in 2005 and with the blessing of the Haitian Ministry of Health (MSPP), it started training the first nurse practitioners in Haiti in 2017. FHM hired one of the FSIL’s first ten Family Nurse Practitioners to work with Dr. Danache at the Carmelle Voltaire Women’s Center.
FHM’s founder, David Walmer, believes that the synergy of this partnership is so important that he joined the board of directors for the Haiti Nursing Foundation in January of 2023. He recently wrote a blog post highlighting his passion for supporting nurses and nursing education called ‘above and beyond‘. He is also preparing lectures to introduce the nursing students to research ethics as well as working with Dr. Jessie Colin and Ms. Fabiola Lamonthe to engage groups the nursing students in FHM’s community health research program.
Here is a story about Daniel Fortune, one of the graduates of both the undergraduate BSN program and the Nurse Practitioner program who is making a difference in Haiti.
If you want to support this effort, you can contribute to the scholarship fund or sponsor a student over a four-year course of study. If you want to be more engaged, send an email to dkwalmer@gmail.com, join FHM’s Friends of Nurses in Haiti Facebook group or participate in David’s open ocean swim to raise awareness for nursing education.