Teamwork helps our Flying Eye Hospital take to the skies

The Flying Eye Hospital team is made up of highly skilled staff and volunteers from all corners of the globe—Africa, Asia, Australia, the Caribbean, Europe, Latin America, and North America. This is a truly multi-national, multicultural team that shares one thing in common: a passion for saving sight.

Scroll down to learn more about some of the many roles that make our work on the plane possible. All interviews were taken from an ophthalmic training project in Jamaica in 2019.

The Director of Aircraft Operations and his team are responsible for all aviation aspects of the Flying Eye Hospital, making sure the entire operation stays safe and efficient. The director is deeply familiar with every part of the plane, down to the very last rivet. Every day is different, whether it’s working on the flight plan for the next Orbis program, managing a regular maintenance check, or negotiating with local airport authorities for every aspect required to land and operate safely in the local country.

The Director of the Flying Eye Hospital leads a dynamic team of eye health and NGO professionals dedicated to bringing medical education and treatment programs to partner hospitals worldwide. He works closely with every part of the team, from the flight mechanics to our staff nurses, and is responsible for the smooth running of every Flying Eye Hospital program. This includes visiting countries well before the plane lands and assessing the program after it leaves.

Orbis wouldn’t be able to carry out its sight-saving work without the 18 incredible FedEx pilots who volunteer their time to fly the plane—officially known as Orbis 1—to its next destination. For pilots, the aircraft provides a unique experience—they meet children who can’t see one day then get their vision back a few days later.

Our Senior Manager works to plan, coordinate and manage all of the logistics that go into each Flying Eye Hospital program. This includes oversight of the safety and security of our team and participants, coordinating and assisting with travel, immigration and customs, managing the supplies required by the team, the packing and unpacking of the plane, and supporting the audiovisual and IT teams.

He's responsible for making sure all staff, participants, and visitors adhere to plans and scheduling. The job requires a lot of active problem-solving since he must handle complex situations and multiple responsibilities simultaneously, mixing long-term needs with the urgency of immediate demands.

The Associate Director of Clinical Training for the Flying Eye Hospital oversees all of the ophthalmic content for each program. This includes supervising the planning visits, the programs themselves, and the surgical case reviews. She also manages the staff ophthalmologists and the Certified Ophthalmic Medical Technologists.

On top of that, she spends a lot of time making sure patients recover properly with post-operative care. This follow-up is critical in ensuring a patient’s full recovery. It’s amazing to see how people’s lives are completely changed by the gift of sight, even after just one day.

Many surgeries to prevent and treat avoidable blindness—such as cataract surgery—can be performed on adults using local anesthetic. That’s not the case with young children, who need to have general anesthesia to correct problems like cataracts or strabismus. Teaching safe practices in anesthesia is a vital part of Orbis training, and our expert shares his skills with local teams in the operating room. Part of the training involves simulation on a manikin called a Pediasim, allowing local anesthesiologists to learn how to respond to emergency situations that may arise in their hospitals.

Our Associate Director of Nursing serves as the direct supervisor to the staff nurses on board the Flying Eye Hospital. She works to ensure the smooth running of the clinical area and safe delivery of patient care, and is committed to educating our local partners in patient care and recovery. She loves being able to share her knowledge with partners and members of her nursing team. This exchange of skills is one of the things that makes Orbis programs so effective.

Orbis has several staff nurses. A staff nurse's main role is to train nurses in the countries where Orbis works. This training can be during the Flying Eye Hospital programs or hospital-based trainings.

Staff nurses work with local hospitals and share best practices in areas such as preparing patients for surgery, assisting in their recovery, helping surgeons during operations, properly cleaning and sterilizing surgical instruments, and ensuring the highest quality of patient care. They also assist in the operating room, creating an environment where local teams receive training on how to prepare patients for surgery and monitor them during an operation.

Another staff nurse works in the Flying Eye Hospital laser room where patients requiring laser surgeries receive treatment and where local eye care teams can learn about these procedures. She is also responsible for pre- and post-operative care of patients on board the plane.

This job requires a special touch to make patients feel comfortable, especially those who have never had an operation or been on a plane before. Respecting patients and treating them with care is a critical part of making them feel comfortable.

She works to train local nurses in delivering this quality of patient care, teaching them how to be compassionate and empathetic with patients. This extra step in training ensures not only that surgeries on board the Flying Eye Hospital are successful, but also that patients thrive.

Another staff nurse works alongside nurses from local hospitals and shares best practices in areas such as preparing patients for surgery, assisting in their recovery, helping surgeons during operations, properly cleaning and sterilizing surgical instruments, and ensuring the highest quality of patient care.

She and fellow nurses also assist in the operating room. They create an environment where local teams receive training on how to prepare patients for surgery and monitor them during an operation.

Sandra serves as one of our amazing Volunteer Faculty, with a specific focus on glaucoma. She works to teach as much about glaucoma and glaucoma treatment as possible over the span of a program. As local partners have varying levels of training, Sandra has to adjust her teaching to meet the needs of the doctors she trains and the patients she sees. Sandra hopes to leave our partners with both the enthusiasm and the resources to continue their learning and progress in their skills. We could not achieve our mission without our global force of more than 400 Volunteer Faculty from more than 30 countries who are united in their dedication to teach, train and inspire.

Many of our amazing Volunteer Faculty doctors are experts in ophthalmic subspecialties, including oculoplastics. Dr. Lee teaches surgeons hands-on skills in oculoplastics as well as hosting lectures to answer any questions local doctors may have about the topic. As each country has different rates of conditions that cause blindness and visual impairment, it is imperative that we bring specialists most familiar with the cases each country sees. This ensures that local doctors gain experience and confidence in treating the most common problems in their communities.

Our Volunteer Faculty nurses teaches colleagues around the world how to deliver quality care to patients and their families. One technique is to establish a cheerful, caring style of nursing that engages the patient and makes them feel comfortable, safe, and respected. This allows patients to have confidence with their skills as a nurse. In turn, it also leads to more positive outcomes, including better patient cooperation, reduced anxiety, and improved healing. Sharing this skill set with fellow ophthalmic nurses teaches them a diversified approach to care that can be useful in their community.

Taking care of high-tech medical equipment and ensuring it works well in a precise medical field such as ophthalmology requires special expertise. On board the Flying Eye Hospital, you’ll find a laser room and simulation center packed with machines such as surgical simulators and virtual reality devices; these are used to teach techniques to local doctors in a safe way before they operate on patients. Our biomedical engineer not only maintains this equipment, but also teaches others to manage and maintain the equipment that they have in their local hospitals.

The Allied Health Technician for the Flying Eye Hospital teaches ophthalmic officers, technicians, nurses, and resident ophthalmologists everything from basic skills to the finer points of complex diagnostic testing. These eye care professionals often serve as a direct link between the patient and the doctor. Improving their ability and level of understanding leads to better patient outcomes.

Our audiovisual specialists manage all of the broadcast capabilities on board the plane. His command center is the audiovisual room, where he controls the cameras that are in every part of the plane. Video from a unique 3D camera system built into the microscope in the operating room allows the surgeries to be broadcast into the classroom at the front of plane; participants feel as if they are also looking down the microscope. A two-way microphone allows them to ask the lead surgeon questions in real time, and surgeries are also broadcast on our telemedicine platform, Cybersight.

The flight mechanics fly with and help maintain the aircraft and all of the ground equipment that supports the Flying Eye Hospital. The MD-10 plane is entirely self-sufficient, with its own generators, water-purification system, and hospital-grade gases. All the team needs on arrival is a runway large enough to accommodate the plane, a water source, and of course, enthusiastic eye care teams to train.

The Senior Manager leads the team that provides aircraft maintenance support for the Orbis MD-10. She is responsible for safely getting the Flying Eye Hospital to its destination so Orbis can deliver hands-on training and sight-saving surgeries.

Before every program, it is also her responsibility to make sure the Flying Eye Hospital meets all hospital requirements for heating and air, water and medical gas. Getting all of this arranged for each program requires a large group effort; the whole team must come together to ensure everything gets done.

The Flying Eye Hospital Program Manager facilitates the development, implementation, and oversight of Orbis’s projects all over the world. This involves meticulous planning before every project, coordination with local hospitals, and helping patients plan for surgeries, such as arranging their transportation to the Flying Eye Hospital by ambulance. She works to ensure Orbis’s ability to fulfill its mission of training ophthalmic care providers to deliver quality eye care for their local communities.

Saving sight requires the dedicated teamwork of dozens of collaborators on and off the plane. We couldn't do it without the help of everyone above, as well as other Flying Eye Hospital staff, our in-country offices, partner hospitals, and of course you—our supporters! Thank you all for keeping us in flight!

Photography by Nick Wood