short term mission teams

GSG Missions is a family friendly organization! We love to have families, friends, and professional groups join together to share this experience.
– Medical professionals (physicians, dentists PAs, NPs, nurses, EMTs, MAs, CNAs, etc.)
– Specialists (chiropractors, acupuncturists, physical therapists, mental health professionals, etc.)
– Students (professional students: medical, nursing, dental, public health, etc, undergraduate students, high school students)
– Non-medical volunteers (all professions and levels of experience)

In other words, everyone is welcome to join us!

A typical day on a GSG Missions trip may resemble this:

• Breakfast at the hotel or guest house followed by a short team briefing
• Travel by bus, boat, or other transportation to a different community each day
• Set up the mobile care clinic in the community using a pre-arranged facility or location (school, church, community center, open area using tarps, etc.)
• Provide medical care, well-patient checkups, dental care, and community health education classes to 100-500 patients depending on the team size
• Lunch at the clinic site
• Return to the team lodging for dinner
• Debriefing meeting
• Prepare for the next day of clinic

We welcome student participation on all of our trips. Students work alongside the medical staff, have direct patient contact every day, and perform many functions of clinic, including:

• Taking vital signs and assisting patients waiting to be seen
• Shadowing providers and nursing staff, depending on interest
• Assisting in the dental clinic
• Developing skills in wound care and with laboratory testing under direction from nursing
• Assisting in pharmacy preparing medications and other tasks
• Providing community education in small classes on basic topics
• Capturing statistics and pre-packing medications for clinic (evening)

Many schools offer community service credit hours for medical mission participation, and we can certainly verify the hours that you worked. Let us know how we can help you receive credit for your experience.

At least half of our volunteers have no medical background, yet their services are critical to the successful operation of our clinics. As a non-medical volunteer, you will work side by side with the medical team throughout the clinics, interacting with patients every day, as well as building relationships with members of the community. Community health education is a critical component for all short-term medical mission trips because it allows us to leave a lasting footprint on the community. Some common roles for non-medical volunteers:

• Community health education –  we provide you with a variety of topics or you can choose your own topic to teach a class to the local residents that will help build and strengthen their community through health and wellness.
• Patient registration and intake, taking vital signs and starting patient charts.
• Assisting in the pharmacy.
• Assisting in the dental clinic.
• Patient escort services to the different departments in clinic.
• Trip historian – take pictures of patients and the clinic site, gather stories, and interview community members.
• Clinic set-up and breakdown.
• Capturing statistics and pre-packing medications for the next day’s clinic (evening).
• Shadowing providers as desired

GSG Missions does not have the ability to recommend vaccinations for you personally, so you will need to consult with your healthcare provider. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has the most up-to-date recommendations for vaccinations. When you begin the vaccination process, your healthcare provider will pull up the CDC website at www.cdc.gov.

NOTE: As of January 10, 2022, all visitors to Guatemala must have a full COVID-19 vaccine regiment completed two weeks prior to arriving in country. 

Your safety and security is the number-one priority of GSG Missions. We have many protocols and policies in place to help ensure a smooth and uneventful trip, with the team’s safety and security always in the forefront. GSG Missions staff will always monitor the situation and make arrangements for the safety and security of the team. There are things that GSG Missions does to keep you safe in the field and things that YOU can do to keep yourself safe and healthy in the field.

Taken together, the following protocols, guidelines, and tips will help you have a safe and healthy journey. We want you to feel 100% comfortable on every GSG Missions mission trip; however, GSG Missions cannot and does not guarantee your safety. There are inherent risks to travel and participating on medical and dental mission teams.

GSG Missions selects areas that:

1. Are not active conflict zones.
2. We feel are safe.
3. We have long standing relationships with.
4. Are family friendly and where children are welcome.
5. You would want to visit!

We:

1. Go the extra mile to have local security support for our team.
2. Provide a photo credential for each team member with U.S. Embassy contact information for your location on the back.
3. Disclose trip specifics including the itinerary only with our team members.
4. Provide business cards with a GSG Missions email address for you to give to local people you meet on your journey.
5. Ensure the current ground situation is monitored by our Security Committee.