Kettering Health team members are serving communities around the world through mission trips that include everything from surgical care to water filtration projects. Many opportunities are available to employees across the organization, although requirements vary by trip.

“Our opportunities are intended to be broadly available to Kettering Health team members, but each trip has its own needs, capacity and requirements,” said Nestor Bruno, the director of Mission and Ministry at Kettering Health. “Some trips are clearly clinical or specialty based. Others are more general service opportunities, such as water filtration distribution, health expos, Vacation Bible School, construction and mobile clinics.”

Current opportunities include trips to countries such as Guatemala, Belize, Thailand, Malawi, Kenya, Colombia, and the Dominican Republic. While some require expertise in specialties such as surgery, primary care, physical therapy, or nursing, others welcome participants without medical backgrounds.

Bruno said the trips help Kettering Health live its mission of living God’s love by promoting and restoring health beyond its hospitals and medical offices.

“These trips are a direct expression of that mission,” he said. “They extend Kettering Health’s healing ministry beyond our local facilities by serving communities with practical health support, medical care, education, clean water initiatives, spiritual encouragement, and human connection.”

Orthopedic hand surgeon Dr. Adam Dann has participated in annual mission trips to Honduras since 2019. He said the experience has changed the way he thinks about both medicine and service.

“We get just as much out of it because we learn from them and how to handle things in a limited-resource environment,” Dann said. “You have to get a little bit creative with a lot of the things that you do. It changes your frame of mind when you come home and makes you much more appreciative of how blessed we are here.”

Asked what he would tell someone considering a mission trip, Dann offered simple advice.

“Come and find out,” he said. “It’s the only way to really experience it. And it’s hard to put into words how much it changes your life.”

Dr. Brian Schwartz, medical director of Kettering Health’s Heart and Vascular Service Line, said mission trips can help clinicians reconnect with the reasons they entered healthcare.

“Most of us go into medicine with altruistic reasons, thinking we’re going to help people and make a difference in their lives,” Schwartz said. “Taking time off to just forget about the business of medicine and truly just give back to somebody that has no way to repay you other than their gratitude actually helps to revive that original reason you went into it in the first place.”

Schwartz said the opportunities extend beyond physicians.

“We’re also taking nurses from the ICU and nurses from the OR and nurses from the Cath lab and ultrasound techs,” he said. “There are a lot of medical providers that are needed for some of these trips.”

Kettering Health cardiologist Dr. Tiffany Priester said international mission work can also provide valuable personal and professional growth.

“A lot of people feel that they have a growth experience when they do an international elective,” Priester said. “They see the world from a different perspective.”

Working in different cultures and health care settings can expose participants to new approaches to care and help them develop skills they can bring back to their work at home, she said.

“Training in a different area and a different resource setting just makes people more competent.”

Sebastian Lopez, chaplain at Kettering College, said collaboration among Kettering Health, Kettering College and community partners has expanded awareness of mission opportunities.

“It’s been really cool because now we’re not siloed or independent,” Lopez said. “There are 15 trips coming from our area where if someone wants to go, they can go.”

Interest in mission opportunities continues to grow across Kettering Health. Bruno said the organization has financially sponsored more than 30 employees participating in mission trips this year, and several upcoming trips still have openings. Employees may also qualify for up to 20 hours of paid mission-trip PTO before using time from their personal PTO banks.

Bruno said team members who participate often find the experience meaningful, both personally and professionally.

“A team member should consider signing up because mission trips reconnect with the deepest reason Kettering Health exists,” he said. “They allow us to use our gifts in places where the need is real and immediate. It is a way to live the mission, not just quote it.”

Team members interested in learning more can visit the Mission Trips page on the intranet, where they can review upcoming opportunities, funding options, PTO considerations and travel requirements.

Kettering Health team members interested in mission trips can head over to the system intranet for more information.