UNMC Students to Study in Latin America This Summer
Nineteen University of Nebraska Medical Center students will spend the
summer studying community health care and Spanish in Guatemala.
The four-week course, offered through UNMC’s International Studies and
Programs, gives students the opportunity to learn about the delivery of
health care in Central America by observing and shadowing at Guatemalan
health care facilities, interacting with Guatemalan health care professionals
and taking field trips. The course, offered twice this summer, will run
from June 4 through July 2 and July 2 through July 29.
“It’s a wonderful opportunity for students, who will experience health
care provided in a different way and in a different setting,” said Sara
Pirtle, coordinator of the Office of International Studies and Programs
at UNMC. “It also will give them a foundation for Spanish which is important
because we need more health-care providers who have Spanish skills to better
meet the needs of our constituents.”
Pirtle is organizing the program along with Alfredo Garcia, M.D., an
affiliated professor of ophthalmology at the Universidad de San Carlos
de Guatemala and the medical director of the National Centers of Ophthalmology
in Guatemala City.
Students will be based in Antigua, which is 45 minutes from Guatemala
City, and live with Guatemalan families. They will receive individual Spanish
language instruction, as well as group medical Spanish instruction. They
also will volunteer at a nearby hospital. Of the 19 UNMC students traveling
to Guatemala, 17 are from the College of Medicine; two are from the College
of Nursing.
Following the initial four-week course, three UNMC students will travel
to Managua, Nicaragua, where they will spend one month volunteering at
Los Chavalitos, a clinic Omaha organizations helped start in 1994. The
clinic continues to be supported by various Omaha groups.
UNMC is the only public academic health science center in the state.
Through its commitment to research, education, outreach and patient care,
UNMC has established itself as one of the country’s leading centers for
cancer research and treatment, solid organ transplantation and arthritis.
During the past year, nearly $31 million in research grants and contracts
were awarded to UNMC scientists, and UNMCs funding from the National Institutes
of Health increased by 28 percent, going from $16.2 million to $20.7 million.
UNMC’s educational programs are responsible for training more health professionals
practicing in Nebraska than any other institution.