Global Initiatives - Nicaragua

Goals

• Purdue nursing students observe the impact of personal, cultural, and gender beliefs and values on communication and clinical practice
• Understand the factors that affect delivery of healthcare in a Central American country
• Develop a personal plan to increase multi-cultural competency to facilitate global advocacy for access to healthcare
• Enhance their therapeutic communication skills with diverse patients, peers, faculty, and host agencies/providers.

For information contact:
Prof. Mary Ilu Altman, mialtman@purdue.edu
Prof. Jan Davis, davis22@purdue.edu

Nursing Students Learn Many Lessons in Nicaragua

A group of students and faculty from the School of Nursing traveled to Nicaragua on a two-fold mission - to help the citizens of this Central American country and give nursing students a chance to immerse themselves in a different culture.

Nine students and two nursing faculty members - Mary Ilu Altman, Director of Student Services and Diversity Enhancement, and Elizabeth A. O'Neil, clinical assistant professor and coordinator of the Family Health Clinic of Monon, traveled to various sites in Nicaragua for the May 15-28, 2006 trip.

The idea for the visit to Nicaragua stemmed from a class offered to nursing students called Spanish for Health Professionals. The class teaches students how to communicate with Hispanic clients, and it also educates them about the culture. The students in the class also performed basic health screenings with patients at the Lafayette Adult Resource Academy.

Altman and O'Neil visited Nicaragua in November of 2005 to assess what kind of program Purdue could establish there. They subsequently received funding from a variety of sources to start the three-year pilot program, including a $7,000 integrated study-abroad grant from Purdue's Office of International Programs.

Students Beth Noble, Anne Nania, Jennifer Sturgeon, Gretchen Poehler, Rachel Pitifer, Sydney Jones, Katie Monts, Mandy Shearer, Jeanna Jordan and Sarah Forsyth, along with Professors Mary Ilu Altman and Elizabeth O'Neil, sort donated medication before the trip. The students also conducted two fundraisers to help defray costs.

During the trip the students visited a wide range of sites in Nicaragua. First, they traveled to the capital city of Managua, where they visited two hospitals - one elite, private facility and one run by the government - to examine the differences in care and administration.

Next, they spent three days in Jinotepe, where they went to school alongside Nicaraguan nursing students to see how their nursing program differs.

Then they traveled to Ometepe Island on Lake Nicaragua, where they performed health screenings for children at an orphanage. While there, they also worked with the Brothers and Sisters of Charity Clinic to examine the challenges of operating a clinic on an island, where all supplies must be brought by ferry.

"The students were eager to work and to contribute," Prof. O'Neil says. "Many people go into nursing because they want to help those in need. They want to feel like they can make a difference. In a developing country the needs are more apparent."

For more information on the Nicaragua mission project, contact Mary Ilu Altman at 765-494-9056 or mialtman@purdue.edu, or Elizabeth O'Neil at 765-496-3684 or lizo@purdue.edu.

Trip Provided 'Out of the Comfort Zone' Experience

By Beth Noble ('06)

In May of 2006, I had the chance to step out of my comfort zone in a big way. Along with nine other students and two instructors, I traveled to Nicaragua to experience the culture and healthcare of this Central American country. These two weeks were a much different test than I have experienced at Purdue. The trip was filled with friendship, frustration, awe, and most of all, an increased knowledge and understanding about the people of Nicaragua and the healthcare system in the country.

We hit the ground running in Managua, touring a private hospital that could rival any facility in the United States. We found that there were more nurses in the hospital than patients.

Next we visited the public pediatric hospital. This was the first place where a healthcare culture shock took place. While some students witnessed a stunning leg amputation, I spent some time in the emergency department and was surprised by the ingenuity that the nurses had to possess to make some of the equipment they had available suitable for the patients.

Purdue nursing students Gretchen Poehler, Beth Noble, and Jennifer Sturgeon join Nicaraguan youngsters for a game of soccer.

Before we left we had the chance to meet a group of Nicaraguan nursing students and ask them questions about their experiences in nursing school, and we found that we had many more things in common than different. This became a theme for me during this trip, the realization although people come from different countries, we are above all else, people.

One of the major healthcare differences that I found was the very large emphasis that Nicaraguans put on public health and primary prevention. We had the opportunity to take part in the "Jornado de Vacunación" (Journey of Vaccinations) on two separate occasions during the trip.

The "Jornado" takes place every year and strives to ensure that all the children in Nicaragua are properly vaccinated. In one case, we set up a vaccination station in a neighborhood, and in another we literally walked door to door to check the child's vaccination card.

We gave poliomyelitis drops, Vitamin A drops, and anti-parasite medication to the children, as well as tetanus shots to the adults, especially any women of childbearing age. I found these experiences to be the most rewarding of the trip. I kept thinking, "THIS is real public health nursing."

We also had the opportunity to visit an orphanage and a clinic, where we filled up the medicine cabinet with some of our donations.

Through this experience, I feel that I was able to grow as a nurse as well as a person. It is a very humbling experience to come back to the United States and realize how much we really have here, and how much other people in the world don't have.