When disasters strike islands, remote areas, and austere environments, it’s often the community’s healthcare infrastructure that takes an especially hard blow. That’s because disasters—like Super Typhoon Sinlaku, which struck the Northern Mariana Islands in April, or Hurricane Melissa, which made landfall in Jamaica in October of 2025—don’t just affect locals; they strain medical systems. Not only do such disasters cause injuries and traumas that can swamp care centers, but the very people who staff and run hospitals, trauma centers, and critical care units are also themselves impacted by the disaster.
That’s why the first volunteers (known as Greyshirts) disaster relief nonprofit Team Rubicon typically sends into remote, offshore, and international disaster zones are medically-trained. Medical Greyshirts can step in to support local hospital networks and partner organizations by augmenting and decompressing healthcare staff affected by the storm themselves, provide medical care at shelters, or stand up a mobile clinic.
Once on the ground in a disaster zone, medical volunteers may provide urgent care, assist with patient triage, support public health efforts, or work alongside local providers to expand capacity.
Medical Volunteers Lead the Way
Recent hurricanes and typhoons in island nations are prime examples of how medical volunteers lead the way in disaster zones. Just days after Hurricane Melissa made landfall on Jamaica on October 28 as a Category 5 Hurricane, Team Rubicon’s Greyshirt medical teams—which included physicians, registered nurses, paramedics, and logistics members—arrived on the Island. Within days, they were caring for patients, including assisting with wound care, caring for kids and mothers, and providing continuity of care for those with chronic diseases.
Six months after responding to Hurricane Melissa, medical Greyshirts also became the first volunteers to arrive in the Northern Mariana Islands following Category 4 Super Typhoon Sinlaku.
An Ever-Present Need for Medical Care Disaster Responders
While nonprofits like Team Rubicon are always looking for general volunteers, when disasters devastate communities outside the domestic U.S., the need for medically-trained volunteers doubles.
The first reality is that in sudden onset disasters there is so much unpredictability that working physicians and other clinicians often cannot plan for them or set time aside to deploy at a moment’s notice. Working medical care providers may simply be unable to step away from day jobs in emergency departments or other clinical duties, explains Team Rubicon’s Medical Director, Dr. Erica Nelson.
“The other component to this request is that our mission sets vary and require different skills, so having a diversified volunteer base is critical to make sure we have the right people for the job,” Dr. Nelson says.
For Team Rubicon, medical volunteers who can serve in austere situations and for extended periods are always in high demand.
Among the most needed medical care providers are doctors and RNs, explains Team Rubicon Deputy Director of Mission Support (Field Leadership), Traci Rankin. That’s in part because their certifications tend to be recognized by countries around the globe.
“Specifically, we are in need of board certified, currently licensed emergency medicine, family medicine, and trauma surgery doctors, as well as advanced EMTs and paramedics, and registered nurses skilled in emergency medicine and critical care,” says Dr. Nelson. “All of them need to be currently practicing, and they need to be capable of operating in austere environments with limited resources.”
Medical Volunteers Needed: How You Can Serve in Disaster Zones
Anyone who wants to serve survivors or disasters and humanitarian crises should join Team Rubicon—including and especially those with medical training.
Medical providers with training in emergency and trauma care, maternal and pediatric health, primary care, and infectious diseases who can deploy as WHO-coordinated medical teams or to strengthen local hospital networks and partner organizations are incredible assets to the organization. And, says Nelson, applicants need to be comfortable in mass-casualty events and austere environments, and well-trained in medevac.
To become a medical volunteer Greyshirt, sign up to volunteer, then fill out the “skills and experiences” portion of your profile, including listing any licensures or medical certifications.
