Nursing students prepare to study abroad in Guatemala

By Ben Circelli
Senior Staff Writer
January 31, 2007

This spring break, La Salle is offering a public health travel study to Guatemala for the first time. The group attending the week-long trip will consist of eight senior nursing majors who are members of an international health class. Dr. Ana Maria Catanzaro will be chaperoning the nursing students.

“I think it is important for nursing students to have service-learning opportunities that may inspire them to serve humanity in areas where there is great need and where they can make significant contributions,” Catanzaro said. “Since public health issues in the global community affect all of us, even those of us who live in affluent nations, the School of Nursing and Health Sciences has made a commitment to include international health content in our nursing programs.”

The travel study group will visit Br. Patrick Duffy, who taught here at La Salle before permanently moving to Guatemala last spring. They will stay with him and the other Christian Brothers who help run schools in two Mayan villages. While there, the nursing majors will fulfill their required hours of clinical rotation. While at La Salle, each student usually performs about six to eight hours per week.

“Our students will learn about and experience firsthand the health consequences of poverty, sociopolitical and economic issues that prevent people from receiving basic health care and the influence of culture on how people take care of their health and respond to illness,” Catanzaro said.

Since they will be the first group to go on a travel study to Guatemala, there were certain requirements that the nursing majors had to meet in order to qualify for the trip. First and foremost, only second semester seniors were eligible to go. They then had to attend a presentation on Guatemala by Sister Linda, who had lived there for some time. Each student had to have a certain overall grade point average and approval from specific nursing professors. Finally, the nursing majors had to submit a written essay and interview for the position.

After learning about the trip early in the first semester, some students knew right away that they wanted to share in the opportunities and experiences the trip provided.

“This was a really big deal to me,” Kaitlyn Reidy said. “I’ve always been interested in traveling, but have never been outside of the East Coast, let alone the country.”

Fellow senior Jill Pintye shared in Reidy’s enthusiasm.

“This is a great opportunity to take advantage of because going on a travel study or study abroad trip is not really an option for nursing majors,” she said.

However, not all of the work students will be doing is going to take place in Guatemala. Students attending the trip are required to research Guatemala, as well as interview Guatemalan families living in Philadelphia so that the students know which problems to address while there. Each student must also receive about $300 worth of immunizations before leaving the United States.

Unlike other travel study trips, this trip to Guatemala is more about providing a service than simply vacationing in a foreign country. Each student is only allowed to bring one carry-on bag, since the group is bringing a lot of medical supplies on the trip as well.

“We will be provided with shelter and food, but I don’t expect to get a lot of sight-seeing in because we’ll be working so much,” Jane Jones said. “But hopefully this will help us all to learn not to take so much for granted and really change our lives so we can see the world differently afterwards.”

circellib1@lasalle.edu