Lunch and Learn – Have you ever wondered what working with Mercy Ships is all about?

Join the webinar to hear Dr. Sonja Dawson, (RN, PhD) share her most recent experience of volunteering as an Adult ICU Nurse with Mercy Ships newest vessel (Global Mercy), currently docked in Senegal, West Africa.

The Global Mercy was deployed for the first time in February this year. The hospital on board spans two decks, and is approx. 7000m2, containing 6 operating theatres, 102 acute beds, 90 low care beds, support services such as radiology, medical laboratory, physiotherapy and nutrition departments. The hospital area also includes dedicated classroom/conference spaces as well as a space dedicated to simulation training intended to supplement the local health providers ability to access professional development.

Sonja has been connected with this not-for-profit organisation for almost 3 decades and has worked on all three ships in various clinical, education and management roles. In 2016/2017 she pioneered the position of IPC Nurse on the Africa Mercy. During that time, she also collected data for a research project that resulted in the development of a Professional Practice Model describing the culture of care given through Mercy Ships.

During this lunch webinar, she will offer a glimpse into this unique environment, the types of patients Mercy Ships serves, the joys, challenges, and day to day life of living and working on a hospital ship, working within an International multidisciplinary team to bring life changing safe surgery to both adults and children.

Sonja is a senior lecturer at Avondale University and convenes the graduate studies program in Nursing. Her passion is to equip and support nurses to function in a global health environment for volunteer service and to provide direction on leadership in these areas. Sonja’s research interests revolve around humanitarian nursing in a non-disaster context, as well as clinical education, and especially within a service-learning context. Most recently, she has been invited to join a research team investigating the impact oral care has on hospital acquired pneumonia. Sonja has been a volunteer with Mercy Ships over the last three decades in various roles and has now served on three of their hospital ships. She has recently returned from Dakar, Senegal where she served for a month on the newest ship, the Global Mercy.
To register for this webinar please click the link below.