Our Nurse of the Week is Rachel Adrian, a registered nurse (RN) from Missouri who has devoted her career to humanitarian relief work. Adrian’s career in relief work began in 2006 when she joined a Katrina relief team to help with disaster relief for thousands of people left homeless after devastating Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast of the US. Her relief work has since taken her around the world from her start in the US to South America, Kenya, and most recently to Iraq.

With an education background including a Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) from Missouri Western State University and a Master of Public Health (MPH) from Liberty University, Adrian is well qualified for her relief service. After helping the Katrina Relief Team, Adrian went on to work with Project Amazon setting up mobile health clinics throughout the Amazon basin of Brazil, work as PACU Nurse for the Mexico Surgery Caravan Clinic, and serve as a Mobile Clinic Nurse with Heart to Heart International in Haiti. Her humanitarian ventures then took her halfway across the globe as a nurse volunteer with a hospital in Kenya before continuing on to volunteer and work in Iraq.

After moving to Iraq several years ago, Adrian ended up settling into several humanitarian nursing positions. As a Health Program Administrator for Samaritans Purse, Adrian helped establish a new clinic in Iraq while also teaching English as a second language to local citizens. She also held a position as an Emergency Nurse at Oasis Hospital in the United Arab Emirates.

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Adrian’s personal life recently brought her into US news after she welcomed a healthy baby boy on Feb. 2. Her husband and baby’s father is Hoger Ameen, a Kurdish man from Northern Iraq who she met three years ago after moving to Iraq for relief work. They married the following year and began making plans to move to the US to start a family. After settling down temporarily in Iraq while they applied for a spousal visa, Adrian moved back home to Missouri in July to wait for her husband. According to People.com, the couple was told in December that Ameen’s application was in the last steps of processing but after a recent executive order enacting a travel ban on citizens from seven countries including Iraq, Ameen received an email notifying him that his visa had been suspended.

The couple isn’t sure what the travel ban means for them yet, but they are hopeful that Ameen can return to the US as soon as possible to meet his newborn son. We want to show our gratitude to Rachel for her inspiring humanitarian work that has positively affected communities around the world thanks to her dedicated service as a nurse.

Christina Morgan
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