One of the many things that makes the UAC-CP unique is its emphasis
on practical learning. Students in all five major areas of study at the College
are required to participate in extension activities that not only
provide applicable professional experiences, but also offer important services
to marginalized populations.
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| Third semester UAC-CP Nursing students and Public Health Program Coordinator Angelica Quisbert. |
One example of this focus on social service extension activities is a new
public health project launched this year in the Nursing Department.
“
Prevention, Detection, and Diagnosis: Addressing Tuberculosis and
Leishmaniasis in Yungas, Bolivia” responds to the needs of people infected with
or at risk of being infected with leishmaniasis and tuberculosis. Both leishmaniasis and tuberculosis are
relatively common and potentially fatal diseases within the College’s service
area.
* In addition to
preventing and diagnosing the diseases, the project also serves as a model for other regional public health centers and provides UAC-CP Nursing students with
practical experience as public health educators.
For the first semester of 2013, 25 students from the UAC-CP
Nursing Department worked to implement the first phase of the project, which
included a comprehensive public health survey of households in 14 communities,
two K-12 schools, and the College (a population of approximately 3,500 people).
Before they could implement the survey, all third semester
Nursing students participated in multiple training sessions that covered topics
such as: introduction to tuberculosis, leishmaniasis, dengue, and chagas
disease; identification of symptoms of leishmaniasis and tuberculosis, collection
of sputum samples, surveying, social interaction, etc.
Once they were trained and organized logistically, they went
out in groups of two to visit communities and do an “active search” of people
with tuberculosis and leishmaniasis. In order to find people at home before
they left to work in their fields, students had to start walking at 5am in the
morning. (The farthest community was located three hours away.) “With a hand
drawn map we walked on narrow trails through what you could call the forest to
visit people house by house,” said third semester Nursing student Beto David
Mamani.
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| A UAC-CP Nursing student talks to a local family about proper waste management. |
At each household, students gathered information for the
public health survey, looked for people with potential signs of tuberculosis
and leishmaniasis, took samples of people with obvious symptoms of the diseases,
and provided educational talks to promote healthy lifestyles, including ways to
prevent and treat tuberculosis and lesihmaniasis. “Our job is to not only diagnose people, but to educate them
and advise them,” Beto said. The students are often the only medical
professionals for miles around.
In addition to identifying cases of tuberculosis and
leishmaniasis and helping people get the proper treatment, Nursing students
also attended to special medical emergencies. “We’ve seen some pretty bad
things,” Beto said recalling one particular situation in which students treated
a little girl suffering from a dog bite on her face. “The family hadn’t taken
the girl to the hospital, so we treated her. We walked to their home three
mornings in a row to help the girl’s parents clean the wound and make sure it
wasn’t infected,” Beto said. Grateful for their help, the family “paid” Beto
and his classmate with bags of homegrown fruit.
Students told me that they were well received by community
members. “It was really cool,” said Nursing student Roger Tapia. “We would stay and converse
with community members for a long while. Often they would invite us to eat breakfast
with them.” Beto agreed. “It has been a beautiful experience to work
with the community members.”
The next steps for the project include expanding the active
search and public health survey to include other communities within the
Municipality of Coroico. Project coordinator Angelica Quisbert said she also wants
students to stat processing the samples, rather than sending them to the
Coroico Hospital for diagnosis. In order to do that, the College needs a better
laboratory with more sophisticated equipment. “I want our students to leave
[the UAC-CP] with the experience of working in a lab and processing samples.”
If UAC-CP students will be working in understaffed rural clinics some day, they
need to have multiple skill sets.
Currently, the only obstacles to growing the program are financial
limitations.
Roger said he is grateful to everyone who has made a financial
contribution to make this project a reality. "There are many people in my country who need health care
assistance" he said, "and that’s why I’m proud to be part of a project that is making a
real difference for people. If we all just give a little, together we can make
a big difference. In just five months we are already seeing positive results of
our work. Thanks to this project, we are helping to prevent disease and, in
some cases, death.”
