Coventry nurse on mission to Sri Lanka

A British nurse is set to put her skills to the test when she spends two weeks working in a Sri Lankan hospital.

Beth Morris has spent the last three years working as a neonatal nurse, looking after premature babies at University Hospital in Coventry.

However, the mum-of -four has always wanted to help others across the globe and will head out to Sri Lanka to work alongside and teach nurses on the island.

Beth, 43, from Warwick, said: "My personal goal has always been to work in a developing country for an organisation such as the Red Cross.

"I can't really do that while my children are at home, so I've been looking for a couple of years for somewhere that does short placements, but they are always about six or nine months, which is too long for me to be away from home.

"Then someone told me about Work the World who get people in the healthcare profession out to hospitals in developing countries and they do placements from two weeks to eight weeks.

"Two weeks was the maximum I was going to be away as my little girl is only 10.

"I don't know a great deal about healthcare in Sri Lanka. The neonatal unit I am going to has about 30 beds and I believe they only have about three incubators and ventilators.

"I don't know what gestation they accept babies from either; at Coventry it is from 23 weeks onwards. We won't know what it is like until we get there and I think we are going to have to be quite resourceful."

Beth has paid for the whole journey herself and will be sharing accommodation with other workers from the same hospital. And Beth is hoping she can make a difference both inside and outside the hospital.

She said: "I was worried about how I would be with the circumstances.

"It isn't appropriate to give street children money and someone suggested taking crayons, pads, pens and pencils as they can't readily get that over there.

"It will help you to feel as if you are doing something to help and being proactive."

- Coventry Telegraph