While people around the world practice social distancing, so many nurses like Diana Fox, an ER nurse at the National Children’s Hospital in Washington D.C., are working on the front lines to fight COVID-19.
“I love being a nurse and know the vital part we play in patient care, but I’m also an advocate for the whole team. On the front lines, we all work together to make sure the patient has the best care from when they come into when they leave. I am humbled and honored to be a part of such a great team of medical professionals,” said Fox.
For National Nurses Week and International Nurses Day, Operation Smile would like to thank Fox and all our nurses working on the front lines of this pandemic. Fox has volunteered with Operation Smile for over ten years and served on 23 medical missions helping children receive life-changing cleft lip and cleft palate surgeries.
Fox was one of five Operation Smile medical volunteers chosen to receive the “Operation Smile 2020 U.S. Volunteer Award,” which is awarded to volunteers who have shown outstanding service, impeccable skill, and have gone above and beyond this year to improve the lives of our patients and quality of our programs.
“Nothing can compare to the feelings I get while helping to enable positive change in the lives of our patients and families around the world. I still get tears in my eyes when I tell people what we do on a mission, and attempt to describe the faces of the parents as they see their child for the first time after surgery,” said Fox.
Operation Smile has more than 6000 volunteers worldwide who help to provide free surgery to children born with cleft conditions. Without the countless hours they donate, many children would not be able to receive this life-changing surgery.
About Operation Smile: Operation Smile has provided hundreds of thousands of safe surgeries for those born with cleft lip and cleft palate. With more than three decades of expertise, Operation Smile creates solutions that deliver free surgery to people where it’s needed most. As one of the largest medical volunteer-based nonprofits, Operation Smile has mobilized thousands of medical volunteers from a wide range of medical specialties from more than 80 countries. Operation Smile engages public-private partnerships to advance health care delivery, train local medical professionals to provide surgical care for patients in their communities, donate crucial medical equipment and supplies, and increase access to surgical care so that everyone living with cleft is treated. Visit operationsmile.org, find us on Facebook or follow us on Instagram and Twitter.
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