A Georgia Perimeter College nursing graduate  and a nursing faculty member are among a small group traveling to Venezuela Oct. 18 to provide healthcare assistance at a medical clinic.

Along with their luggage, the nurses are bringing boxes of donated items—from tongue depressors to disinfecting wipes—collected through GPC’s nursing students, faculty and friends.

Catherine Norton, who graduated from GPC’s nursing program in 2012, and GPC professor Jeanette Crawford will bring their medical expertise to a new clinic in Barquisimeto in northern Venezuela. The two will work at the clinic for a week before returning to Atlanta.

Norton, a nurse in the medical telemetry department at Gwinnett Medical Center,  is co-founder of the nonprofit Christian group, Identify the Mission. Crawford specializes in mental health nursing and will be working with a local psychologist at the clinic.

Currently, one of the Barquisimeto clinic’s most urgent needs is acetaminophen to tackle the country’s rampant Dengue fever, says Norton. The mosquito-borne illness creates flu-like symptoms and is “very hard on the elderly and small children,” she says. The clinic does not have access to the fever-reducing drug—and many other needed everyday items—due to political unrest in the country. There is no vaccine against the illness.

Through her Identify organization, Norton is seeking partnerships for healthcare service-learning opportunities for GPC nursing students in Central and South America.  

“I received the best nursing education at GPC, and I want to support the school and its nursing students in any way I can,” she says.

 Medical items are still being collected. For information, contact Crawford at Jeanette.crawford@gpc.edu.