Volunteer Reflection: Kristen Alcon for Uganda II, 2023

Kristen Alcorn, NP, is a nurse practitioner. Here is her reflection.

My Name is Kristen Alcorn, and I am a nurse practitioner who attended NIFA for my surgical first assist training. During my training I attended a webinar by Dr. Geelhoed, who discussed volunteering with Mission to Heal. At the time, I was a broke student who did not have the means to support a mission. Thankfully, I received a scholarship, which allowed me to go on my first mission. 

The mission exceeded my expectations, and I am very grateful for the experience. In fact, it impacted me enough that I have since been on several missions and have no plans to stop. The experience has given me the gift of meeting individuals from all over the world and the opportunity to make a lasting impact. I’m proud to be a part of Mission to Heal for many reasons. The first being its focus on teaching and leaving knowledge with local providers. It is incredibly gratifying to work with locals who want to learn and are engaged in everything we do with them. Personally, I return to the United States after each mission feeling grateful for everything. Mission to Heal works with the furthest people first, which means they have extremely limited resources. 

I would highly recommend anyone volunteering with Mission to Heal. I recall feeling nervous on my first trip about recently graduating as an NP and not having Dr. Geelhoed’s experience. I thought, “what could I possibly do and contribute?” I found out quickly there were a lot of things I could do and learn while on the Mission. Simple tasks of organizing patients in a clinic, assisting with clinic/procedures, and cleaning. I mention this because I would like to let everyone know that you can be a student, have no experience, or multiple years of experience and be a great benefit to the mission.