Nicole Neabauer, Jennifer Rowland and Michelle Wells, all seniors in Capital’s Traditional Undergraduate Nursing Program, and Eddie Fisher and Bethany Jones, who are seniors in Capital’s Nursing Accelerated Program, traveled to the border town of Nuevo Progresso, Mexico, where they helped a volunteer medical team examine and treat more than 260 people in just two days.
Accompanied by Dr. Barbara Duane, a professor in Capital’s School of Nursing, Neabauer, Rowland, Wells, Fisher and Jones joined a team of 21 doctors, nurses, pharmacists, interpreters, fellow students, clergy and lay people, setting up in a makeshift clinic in Iglesia La Buena Fe, or Church of the Good Faith. They used their education and nursing skills to provide care to the impoverished border-town residents who otherwise would receive no medical attention.
For eight hours a day, the students worked alongside Duane, their teacher and mentor. Together, they checked blood pressure and glucose levels, recorded patients’ height and weight, and treated minor wounds of men, women, very-soon-to-be mothers, children and infants, most of whom had waited patiently for hours. They educated their patients on diabetes and hypertension, and made home-care visits for dialysis patients and a burn victim.
Beyond the practical experience they gained from this service-learning opportunity, all five Capital students were impacted deeply by their connection to another culture.
When asked to evaluate their service-learning experience in Mexico, the students said they were overwhelmed by the tremendous poverty they witnessed, and humbled by the inner joy that filled their patients – young and old.
They were frustrated by the language barrier, but gratified when they overcame it with help from volunteer translators. They were challenged by a record system that filed patients’ charts by first name, but they marveled at how well mothers knew every detail of their children’s ailments, allergies and vaccinations.
Mostly, though, they struggled to make sense of a confusing emotion that blended exhaustion from two days of non-stop work, and the sense of obligation to stay longer because they felt their work was not done.
Through the School of Nursing, Capital University educates professional nurse leaders for lives of service promoting health and healing within a diverse community. Based on the university’s fundamental commitment to its Lutheran heritage, the School of Nursing encourages the pursuit of moral, ethical and social growth, as well as attainment of intellectual goals. All undergraduate and graduate students participate actively in the discovery and learning process under the careful guidance of faculty mentors who provide specialized expertise and individual attention to their students.
The Capital students’ experience was part of an ongoing medical mission of the West Ohio Conference, United Methodist Volunteers in Mission, which sends seven different volunteer teams throughout the year to the Nuevo Progresso clinic in the nondenominational church.