Professional Nurse Volunteers to Conduct International

Critical Nursing Skills Training Program

Longtime Operation Smile Volunteers Cindi Raglin from Virginia Beach, VA; Lucia Mauer from Seattle, WA; and Linda Highfield from Columbus, OH to train and educate nurses across the globe

NORFOLK, VA --- As part of its 25^th anniversary year, Operation Smile announced today that it will conduct a Critical Nursing Skills Training Program, a three day intensive training program for pre/post-operative, operating room (OR), and recovery room (RR) nurses, for nurses in 24 of its partner countries.  The training will focus on critical nursing skills specific to children receiving reconstructive surgery for cleft lip and cleft palate deformities.  Operation Smile is a worldwide children’s medical charity whose network of global volunteers is dedicated to helping improve the health and lives of children and young adults born with facial deformities.  Nurses Cindi Raglin, R.N.C. from Virginia Beach, VA, Lucia Mauer, R.N., B.S.N. from Seattle, WA, and Linda Highfield, R.N., C.N.O.R. from Columbus, OH, created the curriculum and will be the primary trainers for the program which is being conducted between March and August of 2007. 

Operation Smile Senior Manager of Education Dr. Luis Bermudez, said, “The Critical Nursing Skills Training Program is an important component of Operation Smile’s goal for its partner countries to attain self-sufficiency and provide the highest standard of care during both Operation Smile international and in-country local missions.”

This program will assist in-country local nurses from Operation Smile partner countries in their understanding of material through a series of tests, practical application demonstrations, and competency check lists.  The goal is to teach the critical skills of pre/post, operating room, and recovery room nursing with the goal of implementing a standard level of nursing knowledge and care necessary to deliver safe patient care during all medical missions performed under the auspices of Operation Smile.

Nurses from 24 of Operation Smile’s partner countries – Colombia, Venezuela, Mexico, Peru, Honduras, Paraguay, Panama, Nicaragua, Ecuador, Brazil, Bolivia, Philippines, India, China, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, South Africa, Ethiopia, Morocco, Jordan, Egypt, Russia, Kenya – will take part in the training.  The program will include lecture sessions, practical application demonstrations, and tests.  Hundreds of nurses will be trained and two nurses in each country will be identified to serve as in-country trainers for this program in the future.                         

Critical Skills Nursing Training Release  

Cindi Raglin, R.N.C., from Virginia Beach, VA, is a nurse who works in the NICU at Children's Hospital of The King's Daughters in Norfolk, VA.  Cindi has been involved with Operation Smile for many years, volunteering on medical missions and at Operation Smile's headquarters.  Cindi has served as a nurse and Clinical Coordinator on more than 25 medical missions around the world to countries including Cambodia, China, Colombia, India, Jordan, Kenya, Morocco, Paraguay and Venezuela.  As Clinical Coordinator on a medical mission team, Cindi leads the 12-person nursing team.  In addition, Cindi has assisted with Operation Smile education programs in Egypt and Ethiopia and is a member of Operation Smile’s Nursing Council.

Lucia Mauer, R.N., B.S.N., from Seattle, WA, currently works at Virginia Mason Medical Center in Seattle.  Lucia has been involved with Operation Smile since 1996 and served as a nurse and clinical coordinator on more than 26 missions to Mexico, Kenya, Jordan, China, Bolivia, Paraguay and most recently Venezuela.  She assisted in an educational mission to Cambodia and served as an instructor during the 2006 Latin America Clinical Coordinator conference in Peru. Lucia is an active member of Operation Smile Washington’s Leadership Circle.

Linda Highfield, R.N., C.N.O.R., of Columbus, Ohio, currently works at the Riverside Outpatient Surgery Center in Columbus and is a Peri-operative nurse who has been associated with Operation Smile for 15 years. She initially became involved as a Chapter member in Ohio and in that capacity was a Board Member for the Columbus, Ohio Chapter of Operation Smile and was also the Administrator for the OS Columbus Domestic Program from 1995-98. She has volunteered on 29 Operation Smile missions, all but two as Nursing Clinical Coordinator. Linda published the Chapter on Clinical Coordinators for the 1999 OPERATION SMILE CLEFT LIP AND CLEFT PALATE INTERDISCIPLINARY TRAINING MANUAL, wrote and taught Nursing Educational Symposiums in Davao, Philippines and Nairobi, Kenya has been a member of the Operation Smile Nursing Council since 2004 and in 2006 was appointed Chair.

About Operation Smile (www.operationsmile.org)

Founded in 1982, Operation Smile, headquartered in Norfolk, Virginia, is a worldwide children’s medical charity whose network of global volunteers are dedicated to helping improve the health and lives of children and young adults.  Since its founding, Operation Smile has treated more than 100,000 children born with cleft lips, cleft palates and other facial deformities. In addition to contributing free medical treatment, Operation Smile trains local medical professionals in its 25 partner countries and leaves behind crucial equipment to lay the groundwork for long-term self-sufficiency.  Operation Smile will commemorate its 25^th Anniversary with a year-long, multi-faceted series of initiatives to promote sustainability and capacity-building among its 25 mission countries.  The year-long anniversary celebration will culminate in November 2007, with the World Journey of Smiles, 40 simultaneous missions in 25 countries, with a goal of providing new smiles and new lives for an estimated 5,000 children living with facial deformities.