Three students at the University of Nebraska Medical Center College
of Nursing Kearney Division will be spending part of their summer in Jamaica
– but not on vacation.
Lecia Seitz of Alexandria, Abbey Schroeder of Allen and Lori Steuer
of Crete, all senior nursing students, will be part of a United Methodist
Church humanitarian mission to Falmouth, Jamaica, August 19-26. Falmouth
is a poor, medically-underserved city of about 10,000 located about 20
miles east of Montego Bay.
For the students, the trip is an opportunity to use their nursing skills
in a country where there is one physician for every 7,000 people.
Nursing students and faculty members from the UNMC College of Nursing
Kearney Division, which is made up of 16 faculty, three staff and 150 students,
have participated in the mission for the past three years.
During a typical mission, the students, physicians, nurses, medical
students and other volunteers, work at the clinic for a week. They see
about 500 patients, some of whom travel more than 30 miles on rough roads
to get to the clinic. With a line outside the door most mornings, the nursing
students get an opportunity to take histories and blood pressures, diabetes
screenings and assist in exams and surgeries.
For the past 10 years, mission organizers, Wallace Carpenter, M.D.,
and his spouse, Diane Carpenter, R.N., of Rockport, Mo., have sponsored
trips to help meet the medicals needs of the Falmouth community. They were
instrumental in building a clinic on the island and organizing and supervising
up to four trips each year.
The Jamaican people are kind and generous people who were very appreciative
of the services we provided, said Carlene Bass, a nurse in Hastings who
traveled to Jamaica last year while she was a UNMC nursing student.
Linda Gasseling, R.N., a UNMC College of Nursing Kearney Division faculty
member and husband, Phil Gasseling, M.D., have also been involved with
the mission.
Its a very valuable experience as the students get to apply
their health education skills, said Linda Gasseling. The students get
to experience cultural diversity and work with people who are medically
underserved and face poverty everyday.
The students pay $750 for their own expenses, which includes air fare
and living expenses while in Jamaica. The students, who will be taking
a community health course this fall as part of their nursing curriculum,
receive clinical credit for their trip.
The UNMC College of Nursing is the largest nursing school in the state
with a total of more than 700 students at its Omaha, Lincoln, Kearney and
Scottsbluff campuses. It is the only nursing school in the state to offer
undergraduate, master’s and doctoral degrees.
UNMC is the only public academic health science center in the state.
Through its commitment to research, education and patient care, UNMC has
established itself as one of the country’s leading centers for cancer research
and treatment and solid organ transplantation. More than $34 million in
research grants and contracts are awarded to UNMC scientists annually.
In addition, UNMC’s educational programs are responsible for training more
health professionals practicing in Nebraska than any other institution.