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. 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