Nurses Who Inspire

Laura Archer: “not content to simply travel through life”

Photo credit: Laura Archer

Laura Archer is a nurse, humanitarian and artist who was abducted in 2009 while working with Doctors Without Borders in the Darfur region of Sundan. A PEI native, Archer graduated with a nursing degree in 2001 and moved to California to work.  Her life changed when, after realizing she didn’t know much about life outside North America, she sold all her belongings, picked up a backpack and got on a plane.

Photo credit: Laura Archer

She was traveling in areas devastated by the 2004 tsunami and not content to be a tourist, or waiting to be asked, set up her own clinic on a beach. She helped treat the people from a nearby village for several weeks. In 2005 Laura joined Doctors Without Borders where she worked in refugee camps and bush clinics in various conflict-torn locations in Africa. Laura is also an artist who paints portraits of refugees and displaced persons she has met during her work in Africa. She paints as a way to share with the rest of the world what their danger-filled lives are like.

Laura has had a remarkable journey which has been fueled by curiosity but directed by compassion and the desire to help those in need. She is truly an inspirational nurse and person.