Doctors Without Borders Frontline Healthcare Worker Speaker Series: Liyana Winchell

Liyana Winchell is a head nurse, who most recently worked at Kutupalong Hospital in Bangladesh - which serves 600,000 Rohingya refugees and local communities. Here, there are approximately 1,000,000 Rohingya people living in crowded conditions with very little protection from natural disasters and infectious diseases.

Nurse Liyana and MSF adapted to meet the new challenges that arose with this population during COVID; their team extended Kutupalong Hospital to create an isolation area - a difficult task with the neighboring regions shutting down.

They then trained staff on how to use personal protective equipment, added hand washing points throughout the hospital, and worked to maintain existing medical programs for Rohingya refugees and local communities. Now, back in the U.S., Head Nurse Liyana is preparing to attend graduate school.