Spartan Nurse Helps Open Nursing Training Center in Mongolia
Kate Borkowski, CON BSN ’08, is leading positive change in healthcare by educating hundreds of nurses half way around the world.
As a member of the Peace Corps for nearly three years, her service work has taken her to Mongolia where she is helping to open a nursing training center and lab in the community’s local hospital. The facility is set to open in July 2012 and will help improve the quality of healthcare available to patients from across the region.
“We are proud of the work our alumni are doing throughout the world and Kate is an excellent example of a Spartan Nurse making a difference to improve patient care,” said Dean Mary Mundt.
The lab will serve as a training facility for 135 nurses to learn basic and advanced nursing skills and improve current practices through hands-on trainings and seminars. Currently, patients that are unable to receive adequate care in the local community are sent on a ten hour journey to be treated at the capital city hospital.
“My nursing degree has given me so many skills that I've used during my time in Mongolia. Critical thinking, organizational skills, and patience are just some of them,” said Borkowski. “Mongolians highly respect those with professional degrees such as mine, so it's been able to open many doors and give me opportunities that may have not been available to other volunteers.”
In her next year in the Peace Corps, Borkowski will coordinate nursing education with the lead nursing staff and help to open a new hospital in 2013. Aims of the new hospital are to raise the standard of healthcare in Mongolia and become the first Level I Trauma Center in the region.
“Being able to see the beginning stages of a brand new hospital is going to be very interesting and great for my professional development. I will be building upon what I have been doing for the past two years with nursing seminars, trainings, and demonstrations.”
Education Opens Path to Better Trained Nurses
In her senior year at MSU, Borkowski became more serious about her Peace Corps application, and discovered that the health sector was a perfect fit to launch her nursing career.
Nurses are in very high demand in the Peace Corps. Borkowski’s Spartan nursing degree made it easy for her to be placed in a country where she could have a significant and lasting impact on improving world health and delivery of care to patients.
About Peace Corps in Mongolia
More than 930 Peace Corps volunteers have served in Mongolia since the program was established in 1991. Currently, 136 volunteers serve in Mongolia. Volunteers work in the areas of English education, community development, health, and economic development. Volunteers are trained and work in Mongolian and Kazakh.
