Kristi Myers, MSN, RN, CPN, began her work in global health before she was even a nurse. At age 18, she had the opportunity to assist on a hospital ship with Mercy Ships in Sierra Leone for two weeks. At 21, she volunteered again on a ship in Ghana. Experiences that instilled her passion for global health and confirmed her decision to become a nurse, Kristi’s interests have increasingly become intertwined.
After receiving her undergraduate degree in nursing from Liberty University in 2007, Kristi first joined Children’s National as a nurse intern on the Heart and Kidney Unit, where she worked as a registered nurse until 2011. From 2011-2014, she transferred to the satellite emergency department at United Medical Center in SE, D.C., while simultaneously pursuing her Masters in Nursing Education at Marymount University. In 2014, she returned to Children’s National as a Professional Development Specialist, where she currently works as a nurse educator to train and prepare new nurses through the Transition to Practice and Preceptor programs.
Throughout, Kristi has maintained her interest in global health. From 2008-2012, she volunteered as a nurse with several medical organizations in Haiti, making the trip with surgical and clinical teams several times. In fact, it was her experience during Haiti’s earthquake in 2010 that directed her focus to nursing education. Kristi had been working with a surgical team in Ouanaminthe when the earthquake struck, forcing many Haitian nursing students studying at the university in Leogane back to her site. In joint efforts at earthquake relief, Kristi worked closely with the nursing students, where she realized the benefit of training others as a more long term and sustainable approach to strengthening global health efforts.
Searching for a way to apply her expertise in nursing education to global health while at Children’s, in 2017, Kristi was introduced to the Global Health Initiative (GHI) while working on a research study with Dr. Lineo Thahane to develop e-learning programs for nurses in Lesotho. In 2018, she joined GHI nurse Lynda Dattilio to start the Global Health Workshop, and in 2019, launched the Nursing Special Interest Group for GHI, which she currently leads. The Group works to introduce, engage, and prepare nurses for global health work.
As its official mission and in Kristi’s words, the Nursing Special Interest group envisions “To bring together nurses to share education, training, research and knowledge in a way that promotes cultural competency and is mutually beneficial. We believe the core of global knowledge is respect for each other and the shared desire to both learn and teach in diverse settings with the goal of sustainability. ” She is glad to be able to combine her work as a nurse educator with a global focus, as the two started together for her. As she works today to train nurses for global work, she’s still in touch with the nursing students she met at Ouanaminthe, always serving as a reminder to her why she got involved in the first place.