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INTERNATIONAL MEDICAL ALLIANCE ASSEMBLES TEAM FOR SUMMER MEDICAL MISSION TO NICARAGUA
 

The California-based group is still seeking doctors, nurses, surgical techs, an optometrist and a pharmacist for its July 28th to August 8th mission.

RANCHO MIRAGE, Calif., April 13, 2010 – A Southern California non-profit group is seeking several doctors, nurses and other support personnel for its upcoming medical mission to Nicaragua.

Rancho Mirage-based International Medical Alliance (IMA) has assembled a team of more than 50 doctors, nurses, dentists and support personnel who have agreed to volunteer their time and talents on a 10-day medical mission to Somoto, Nicaragua, from July 28th to August 8th.

“We have a very diverse group of volunteers joining us for our medical mission, including general, plastic and maxillofacial surgeons,” said Ines Allen, IMA’s founder and president.

However, the group is still seeking a few more volunteers, including one maxillofacial surgeon, one anesthesiologist, one surgical tech and two recovery nurses as well as one gynecologist, one pediatrician, one optometrist and one pharmacist, Allen said.

“If we can recruit a few more volunteers, we can perform more life-changing surgeries and medical examinations,” Allen said. IMA’s volunteer surgeons typically perform surgeries to remedy cleft lips, cleft palates and other facial deformities. IMA’s summer’s mission to Nicaragua will also include an orthopedic surgeon, several dentists, and a prosthetist.

In addition to volunteering their time and talents, the volunteers in IMA’s Nicaragua will be expected to pay for their own airfare. Their room and board, however, will be provided by the Nicaraguan government.

Based in Rancho Mirage, International Medical Alliance is a non-profit organization that recruits doctors from every medical discipline to volunteer their time and talents to make a positive difference in the lives of children and adults with limited economic means, both in the U.S. and overseas.

If you would like to volunteer on an upcoming IMA mission or to learn more about IMA’s efforts in the U.S. and overseas, please contact Ines Allen at (760) 485-8963 or visit www.internationalmedicalalliance.org.

14th International Nursing Research Conference
November 9-12, 2010 
Burgos, SPAIN
The event is bilingual (Spanish-English; there will be simultaneous translation in several sessions and the abstract submission can be in English or Spanish). The event’s website is http://encuentros.isciii.es/burgos2010/

THE INTERNATIONAL COCHRANE COLLABORATION ESTABLISHES A NEW NURSING ENTITY
 

The Cochrane Collaboration has recently registered a new nursing entity. The Cochrane Collaboration is an international non-profit and independent organisation, dedicated to making up-to-date, accurate information about the effects of healthcare readily available worldwide. It produces and disseminates systematic reviews of healthcare interventions and promotes the search for evidence in the form of clinical trials and other studies of interventions.

The Cochrane Nursing Care Network (CNCN) is one of 16 Fields and Networks within the Cochrane Collaboration. The purpose of a Field or Network is to support the conduct, dissemination and utilization of systematic reviews relevant to the field. The core functions of the CNCN fall into three major areas related to the production and use of Cochrane reviews:

1. Supporting Cochrane Review Groups in the preparation of reviews relevant to nursing;

2. Introducing cross-cutting, non-specialised perspectives relevant to all those providing nursing care (nurses, other disciplines such as social work, families and lay caregivers); and

3. Enhancing the dissemination and effective uptake of Cochrane reviews.

The CNCN is coordinated from Adelaide, Australia and consists of five Nodes – led from Scotland, the Celtic countries, Spain, the USA and Canada - and Network Groups with members from twenty countries across the world. The CNCN has a ‘hub and spoke’ model in which the Network is coordinated centrally and supported by these regional nodes and network groups.

Membership of the Network is open to nurses, formal and informal carers, other healthcare professionals, researchers and others involved in the delivery of nursing care. The first international CNCN Symposium will be held at the National University of Singapore on October 9th and 10th 2009 (immediately before the 2009 Cochrane Colloquium being held in Singapore). For more information; to become a member; to participate in the work of CNCN; or register for the Singapore CNCN Symposium - to see the CNCN website: