“Life begins at the end of your comfort zone.” – Neale Donald Walsch

That is the quote on a card given to Dr. Julie Moss as a parting gift by a colleague in South Africa when she and the USC Upstate team left to return home last May. Reflecting upon it now, Moss also thought it seemed appropriate upon another team’s return from Ecuador in July.

Two teams of nursing students from USC Upstate’s Mary Black School of Nursing, led by Assistant Professor Moss, embarked on these trips designed to provide them with an opportunity to help meet the needs of people who live in extreme conditions and/or situations.

“Through these international trips, I can expose students to global health and a world outside the Upstate, even the United States,” said Moss. “Often, what they come back saying is ‘I want to give more’ either in this community or other places.”

In South Africa, Moss and a team comprised of 17 Upstate students and faculty, as well as two community participants, went to Cape Town and were able to work with counterparts in a certified nursing program there teaching sessions about diabetes and hypertension, as well as provide general health assessments for people in the community. The team also visited a private clinic and two public health centers seeing firsthand the significant need.

“In the clinics we visited, patients arrived for care early in the morning, standing in line all day waiting to see a nurse,” said Gigi Lattimore, a student participant. “Sometimes they were sent home without being seen and told to return the next day. And in the community health fair we conducted, people came from all over the community. For many, this was the only healthcare they received.”

In addition to the clinic visits, the Upstate team held an HIV Health Fair where they provided screenings for more than 200 people in one day. This was followed by visits to a local orphanage and an “informal settlement,” a title given slum areas, where participants worked with local healthcare workers from New Beginnings Development Center going door to door helping educate residents about tuberculosis.

“What surprised me most about working with the students at the New Beginnings program were the positive attitudes and amazing spirits,” said Kristina Kung, student participant. “Everyone was so eager to learn. One student I worked with listened so intently when I was teaching her how to take blood pressure. I thought I was confusing her, but after I explained it once, she picked up the blood pressure cuff and stethoscope and correctly took a reading practically on her first try! It took me weeks as a nursing student to perfect that skill.”

In Ecuador, Moss led the team of 18 Upstate students and faculty on a journey of comparisons and contrasts as they met with students and professors from Universidad de las Americas, local physicians and healthcare workers.

The team also had an opportunity to work in local kids’ clubs, provide assistance in local feeding programs and conduct health assessments in both cities and rural areas.

While everyone in Ecuador is guaranteed free health care, the team learned that it comes with conditions. Nurses, they discovered, are expected to be, more or less, the educators in terms of interacting with the people. The nurses, however, have learned to use this opportunity to make people aware of better health practices which can help minimize negative health conditions.

“Though the healthcare system is very different there, I was surprised to find out that the healthcare workers are very similar to the ones here in the U.S.,” said team member Kelly Pace, a 2010 Upstate graduate and registered nurse. “They are very hard workers and strive to put the patients at the center of their care.”

Overall, the Upstate students were intrigued, but they determined that it would be difficult, at best, to work in conditions with no real clinic and no supplies. However, there was no denying the gratitude of the people for any assistance that is available.

“The experiences I encountered while on this trip opened my eyes and heart to the people in a way that I never expected,” said Pace. “Whether it was playing with the kids, serving a meal, or checking their blood pressures, the people were always so happy. And these were people who were living in extreme conditions, conditions you or I would not enjoy. They made me realize that true happiness doesn’t come through material possessions but through time with family and friends.”

Nursing student, Hannah Kerr, agreed, as she noted, “I was able to see how my material possessions at home are insignificant in the bigger picture. Their gratification for a simple life showed me it’s not material possessions that make us happy.”

Of course, with any international travel there will always be some challenges.

“The language barrier between our group and the people we served was, by far, the greatest challenge,” said Kerr. “However, I considered it a ‘great’ challenge because it forced each of us to push ourselves out of our comfort zones. The people we were serving never let this barrier limit our interaction. They didn’t care that we couldn’t speak Spanish fluently; they cared that we made the effort to help them.”

Coordinated with Extreme Response International, a nongovernment humanitarian aid organization based in Atlanta, these international study trips were designed to provide participants an opportunity to see, experience and address some very real issues facing many of the less fortunate in both countries.

“We also had great support from faculty and staff across campus as we collected travelsize lotion, shampoo, toothbrushes and toothpaste for personal hygiene kits we shared with the children and families,” said Moss. “We are currently collecting these types of hygiene items for the trips in June and July 2012.”

Whether working to understand the needs of a city with 1.2 million people; an “informal settlement” of 40,000; children who live at the city dump or families in remote regions, Upstate students on both trips had their eyes opened to two very different parts of the world and two very different cultures.

“I realized that people are resilient and resourceful,” said Lattimore. “People living in desperate times sometimes take desperate measures. In order to help people of different cultures, it is necessary to monitor and adjust our interventions in a way that is useful given their circumstances and resources.”

One of the key lessons Moss felt both Upstate teams learned centered on understanding how to work with less; making do with what you have.

“Before I left South Africa, I found a book of photography showcasing shacks all around Cape Town. It was amazing to see beauty in something I initially thought of as not so pretty,” Kung added. “Because I was only considering the negative when we first visited the very poor township of Masiphumelele, I almost missed out on what was positive about that place.”

For Moss, the change in the students is exciting to see.

“They are no longer a round peg in a round hole, but a square peg in a round hole challenged to learn and grow from their experiences,” she said.

Experiences that now give them a broader view of what they are capable of, well beyond their comfort zone.

Nursing Students See A Different World
- by MEG HUNT of Upstate Magazine
Fall 2011 Issue

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