Volunteer on board a Mercy Ships hospital ship
Around 200 different roles keep a hospital ship running, and only some of them are clinical.
A hospital ship is a hospital, a hotel, a school and a working vessel at once. Every one of those needs people.
Who is needed
Surgeons, anaesthetists, nurses, dental professionals, physiotherapists and occupational therapists make the hospital work. Deck officers, marine engineers, electricians, plumbers and biomedical technicians make the ship work.
Cooks, stewards, teachers, IT staff, buyers, accountants and administrators make daily life for several hundred crew possible. Nursing is consistently the largest single need.
How long a placement lasts
Some volunteers come for two weeks and fit it into their annual leave. Some come for a field service. Some stay for years, and a few build a career on board.
Field services are planned around a mix of long-term crew who provide continuity and short-term specialists who fill defined gaps. Both are genuinely needed, and neither is a lesser contribution.
What to expect
Cabins are small and usually shared. Crew eat together and live in close quarters with people from around 60 countries. The working days are long, particularly during a field service.
Volunteers are not paid, and in most cases contribute towards their own crew fees. This is worth understanding clearly before applying rather than discovering later.
Applying
Recruitment is handled by the Mercy Ships office in your country, which can tell you what roles are open, what qualifications and registration are required, and what the process involves. If you are interested but unsure whether you would be suitable, that conversation is the right place to start.
