An international humanitarian organization is tapping the Nashville healthcare market for doctors and nurses interested in practicing medicine in war-torn nations.
Doctors Without Borders is using a mock refugee camp staffed by former refugees and aid workers to show people what it’s like to live in one.
Carol Etherington is a nursing professor at Vanderbilt University and a Doctors Without Borders volunteer. She says the exhibit is meant to raise awareness of the 33-million refugees in the world, but also to recruit volunteers.
“It is difficult for many physicians as well as nurses to just leave because this organization really makes a commitment to the places they go, as do many organizations, but we require at least a six month commitment and that makes it a little bit difficult for doctors to just up and go.”
Doctors Without Borders will hold a question and answer session (tomorrow night/tonight) for people interested in medical work with refugees. The exhibit is open to the public through Sunday afternoon at Nashville’s Centennial Park.
The group estimates that more than 9-thousand political refugees from 40 countries live here in the Nashville area.
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