Nurses Day: Celebrating Nurse Elisa Urruchi

Based in Lima, the infection control specialist joined Orbis at the beginning of 2011 after volunteering as a translator on a sight-saving project years before.

Elisa provides critical training for nurses on the Flying Eye Hospital and in our partner hospitals around the world. She shares best practice for preparing patients for surgery, assisting in their recovery, helping surgeons during operations, cleaning and sterilizing surgical instruments, and ensuring the highest standards of patient care.

Sharing the importance of surgical nurse training says: “We train nurses to be familiar with ophthalmic surgical procedures so that they can anticipate the surgeon's needs, to be familiar with surgical instruments so that they can handle them appropriately and to maintain strict adherence to sterile techniques throughout the surgical procedure to minimize the risk of infection and other complications while contributing to successful surgical outcomes.

“Training nurses in proper scrubbing is also important because it is a practice that minimizes the number of microorganisms on the fingernails, hands and arms and inhibiting their rapid growth therefore preventing surgical site infections.”

Gallery: Nurse Elisa on the Flying Eye Hospital

During an Orbis Sightlines podcast, Elisa explains how she came to join Orbis saying: “After those two weeks, I immediately decided to send my CV. In August 2010, Orbis contacted me and sent me an email saying: "Are you are still interested in joining Orbis?" and I said "Yes, I am, I'm still interested" and my heart was beating very hard because it was my dream and still is.”

Committed to her craft, Elisa graduated with a Bachelor of Nursing at the Universidad Nacional del Centro del Peru and completed a master's degree in health services management at the Universidad Inca Garcilaso de la Vega, as well as an ophthalmological care specialist diploma.

Together with the Flying Eye Hospital nursing education team, Elisa has co-authored the Orbis Ophthalmic Nursing Competency Assessment Rubric (ONCAR), a tool to assess the competency of ophthalmic scrub nurses and technicians. This assessment tool has become a vital part of our nursing training programs.

Outside of Orbis, she co-founded South America’s first Ophthalmic Nursing Association or La Asociación Peruana de Enfermeros en Oftalmología (APEO) an autonomous, self-sustained, non-profit organization established in 2006 to unify ophthalmic nursing in Peru. It provides ophthalmic nursing education and ultimately works to improve the quality of ocular health services within the Peruvian community.

Almost 20 years later, Elisa is the current president of APEO and with the support of Orbis and Alcon, will host two events in 2025: International Nursing Congress in August, and a vitrectomy (a type of eye surgery) nursing workshop in November, both in Lima, Peru.

The Flying Eye Hospital staff nurse has also helped organize the first ever International Conference and Workshop in Commemoration of International Nursing Day in La Paz, Bolivia, on May 12, 2025. The special event will be a celebration of the nursing profession, focusing on the theme of nursing well-being, highlighting the challenges and opportunities for nurses while also showcasing their crucial role in healthcare systems.

Recalling some of her most memorable moments in nursing, she told us: “I helped cor­rect stra­bis­mus on a 70-year-old patient in Peru. This man had to suf­fer for years with a con­di­tion that could’ve been cor­rect­ed dur­ing his child­hood if he’d had access to prop­er care.”

At the other end of the spectrum, she said she will never forget one young patient in Peru who had sight-restoring surgery. Afterwards, he refused to let go of his doctor because the boy believed that if the doctor went away, so would his sight.

Gallery: Nurse Elisa training nursing teams around the world

Everyone at Orbis would like to say a huge thank you to Elisa for her tireless commitment to helping nurses grow their skills and knowledge, improving eye care in Peru and beyond, and giving so many people hope for a brighter future.

Happy National Nurses Day!