The Bumpy Road to Global Consciousness

While some students took much needed time off during the winter break to regroup and prepare for the next semester, two members of the Multicultural Nursing Student Association (MNSA) seized the opportunity to volunteer abroad during this treasured free time.

Each year the MNSA organizes a student led volunteer trip. Rebecca Bittman, BS ’16, a senior at the time, and Alexander Salinas, the incoming president of the MNSA, embarked on a seven day adventure, traveling by “chicken bus … down a steep mountain road” to volunteer at a government-run clinic in the small town in Magdalena, Guatemala.

Through International Volunteer HQ, a travel company that places volunteers in host communities under the supervision of local health care providers, they – along with nursing students from a host of states and several foreign countries, including Australia, Canada and Italy – gained hands-on experience working with local doctors and nurses providing basic health care to those in desperate need.

Assisting with histories and physical exams, wound care, vaccinating children and adults, drawing blood, and providing patient education in a maternity and pediatric clinic, the students were surprised to see children with common childhood diseases that are rarely seen in the U.S. because of the availability of required vaccinations.

“Exposure to patients who lack access to health care … brings a greater sense of how socio-economic factors play a role in one’s health,” says Salinas. He notes that cultural practices and beliefs also significantly influence the patient and care, so he was conscious of keeping an open mind.

Salinas plans to return next winter and encourages others with an interest in health disparities to consider seeking out an experience such as this to broaden their understanding of nursing practice in other parts of the world.

-DONNA A. TYRPAK