Page B6
®I|e ‘P ortland (©beeruer
lanuary 29,2003
IQ
Immersed in Mexico’s Health Care
OHSU nursing
students gain
cultural skills
with life
experience
John Jessup, nursing instructor
in the com m unity health program at
O regon H ealth S ciences U n iv er
sity, noticed his students w ere p ri
m arily A nglo, w hile 10 percent o f
the O regon population is H ispanic.
M eanw hile, scarcely o n e-h alf o f 1
percent o f O reg o n ’s nurses p er
sonally reflect this H ispanic h eri
tage, a critical problem o f the n u rs
ing shortage. So Jessup determ ined
to prepare students to w ork w ith
L atino clients and p atients m ore
effectively.
E ven if students w ere not H is
panic, they could certainly be cu l
turally com petent. In 1997 he began
escorting ten O H SU u n dergradu
ate o r four graduate nursing stu
dents at a tim e to La Paz, B aja C ali
fornia Sur, M exico. There, the stu
dents are quickly im m ersed in a
one-m onth total experience.
La Paz, which means ‘The Peace, ’
is a G u lf C oast city o f m ore than
2 0 0 ,0 0 0 p eo p le w ith sp ark lin g
beaches and w arm blue skies. But
O H SU students seldom see this
side o f the city. T hey im m ediately
begin w ork w ithin the M exican
m edical system , acquire Spanish
language sk ills, in v estig ate the
Colleen Casey (center), a senior nursing student at Oregon Health Sciences University is pictured with her host family in Mexico.
national health structure and live
w ith local fam ilies.
C olleen C asey , a senior graduat
ing this June, lived with a fam ily o f
seven in a tw o-bedroom house o f
cinder block w alls and a corrugated
metal roof. She loved every minute.
C hickens clucked throughout the
house and roosters woke her every
morning. Her host family lacked hot
w ater, and C asey shared a room
with tw o teenage girls.
"I adored my fam ily and becam e
part o f it," she said. “T h e y 're very Jessup said, explaining that stu
tight-knit. O ne o f the daughters is dents leave host fam ilies at 7 in the
a nursing student and the oldest m orning only to return at 8:30 or
son plays in a local band. E ssen 9:00p.m . each night. “Students learn
tially, h e ’s the fam ily breadw inner. what it’s like to be a m inority w ithin
W e all pitched in. If the gas tank for the m ajority M exican culture. They
the stove needed changing, ev ery take public transportation, live in
one got up early to go get it filled. the barrio (ghetto), and often have
W hen the m other sold tam ales d u r running w ater only a couple hours
ing a national holiday parade, we each day.”
w oke up at 5 a.m . to help her put
The students begin each m orn
them together.”
ing w ith four o r five hours in vari
“T h e m o n th is so in te n se ,” ous clinical sites— hospital w ards,
barrio clinics, a R ed C ross urgency
clinic o r rural m obile clinics. T hey
offer im m unizations, dental help, or
h ealth ed u catio n on prev en tiv e
care, such as lactation or diabetes
— all in Spanish. Follow ed by a 1 1/
2-hour class on com m unity and
cultural health issues w ith Jessup,
students spend the last four hours
o f the day w ith a Spanish tutor.
If the schedule isn ’t daunting
enough, the hom ew ork certainly is.
Jessup requires 20 new vocabulary
w ords each day and a Spanish oral
exam com plete w ith clinical sce
narios. S tudents also develop a
friendship w ith a M exican peer,
conduct a com plete assessm ent o f
both a local fam ily and a health
facility, w rite a hypothetical co m
m unity health grant and, finally,
assess, analyze and present the
entire infrastructure o f L a Paz —
including health, public safety, eco
nom ic, transportation and educa
tional system s.
C asey m uses about both the in
tensity and w onder o f the experi
ence.
“W e w ere em braced as nurses,"
C asey said, explaining she and her
colleagues w ore w hite from head to
toe each day. as do all M exican
nurses. “W e becam e invested in
the com m unity in a way only those
w ho live there can."
N ow w hen she helps patients in
O regon, she has a com pletely new
perspective.
"I try to m eet th em w h ere they
are. I t ’s m o re than b eing ab le to
sp eak S p a n ish o r h a v in g a c o n
v e r s a tio n a b o u t th e i r h e a lth
n eed s in th e ir n ativ e to n g u e. It
tra n sc e n d s th at. I am b e g in n in g
to u n d e rs ta n d w here th ey co m e
fro m , w h at th e ir h ealth sy stem
w as like, and w hat their lives are,”
she said. “ F ro m now on. I ’m open
to e x p a n d in g m y ho rizo n s to co n - .
sid erin g h e a lth and illn ess c o m
p le te ly o u t o f the box. T h e re ’s n o .
d o u b t ab o u t it. I ’m ju s t g o in g to >
be a b e tte r n u rs e .”
Jessup is aw ed by students w ho
com plete the im m ersion.
R elativ es M o u rn M ex ico Q u ak e V ictim s
(A P ) — S o ld iers an d sailo rs
fan n ed o u t to h e lp re s id e n ts and
Rescue
su rv e y th e d am ag e in C o lim a,
teams search M ex ico a fte r a Jan. 21 earth q u ak e
through the
k ille d 28 p eo p le and left ab o u t
rubble in
10,000 h o m eless.
Colima,
M an y su rv iv o rs w ere cro w d ed
Mexico after
in sh e lte rs o r b e g in n in g to clean
a 7.8-
ru b b le from th eir sh attered hom es
magnitude
in C o lim a state, 30 0 m iles w est o f
earthquake.
M ex ico C ity.
(AP photo)
P eo p le w an d ered , d a z e d and
aw ed by th e d am ag e , p ast the
ro p e d -o ff stre e ts an d sh o p s o f
B U SIN E SS
d ir e c to r y
Madam Marion Pei
Owner
_
MADAM’S
Nail <x 1-oot Specialist
1 love to do Feet!
Avon Representative
WW.J.D.
th e h a rd -h it city o f T e c o m a n ,
w h ere an estim a te d 30 p e rc e n t o f
h o m e s w e re d a m a g e d o r d e
stro y ed .
S h o p k eep ers in T e c o m a n b e
g an sw eep in g up sh a tte re d g lass
fro m sto re fro n ts in w h at h ad b e
co m e a g h o stly d o w n to w n , as
M ex ican n avy sa ilo rs w o rk ed to
c le a r c h u n k s o f c o n c re te that had
tu m b le d in to th e s tre e t fro m
n earb y b u ild in g s.
In C o lim a, the state c a p ita l.
V icente R o driguez sat several feet
fro m his m o th e r’s flo w e r-la d e n
c o ffin , h ard ly seein g re sid e n ts
scu rry p ast w earin g d u st m ask s.
“ I did w h at I c o u ld to sav e h e r
but it w as u se le ss,” he said as
frie n d s an d re la tiv e s e m b raced
him and p aid th e ir re sp e c ts at an
o u td o o r m em orial fo r8 3 -y ear-o ld
M aria R o d rig u e z M acia.
R o d r ig u e z , 5 3 , w a s a t a
n eig h b o r's hom e T uesday night
when the 7.8-m agnitude earthquake
struck, shaking the w alls, cutting
pow er and causing the earth to
Ph (501) 288-105)
madamsalon@yahoo.com
ripple like w ater beneath him .
L ik e th o u sa n d s o f o th e rs, he
ran o u ts id e , stu m b lin g sev eral
b lo ck s d o w n th e d a rk en ed streets
to fin d b o th h is m o th e r and siste r
trap p ed b en eath a m o u n tain o f
e arth , m etal and sto n e th a t had
been th e ir h u m b le ad o b e house.
P re s id e n t V icen te Fox to u red
d ev astated n eig h b o rh o o d s, pro m
ising to h e lp reb u ild the h o u ses
from n ew er, stro n g e r m a te ria ls
th at w o u ld w ith sta n d the fo rce o f
fu tu re q u ak es.
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