“Many of our students don’t see the world outside of their own little communities. If they go out of the country, it’s probably sandy beaches, ritzy hotels and good food,” McBee says. “But they don’t see the culture of poverty and the vulnerable populations. They never see the human condition that everybody needs to understand is out there.” They get a small piece of that in our nursing program locally at places like KARM, but that is a few hours of a clinical day. McBee says she strategically gives students clinical experience opportunities, which helps them gain confidence as they serve. Some advanced students even see their own patients. “They get a lot of experience that’s very amenable to assessment skills, learning more about medication and the cultural aspects they learn are phenomenal.” “We want to see everybody we can, so we’ve got to use some of these students to do assessments and then that information goes to the nurse practitioner so they can actually do the treatment,” McBee says. Junior pre-med student Kara Cabbage has been to Haiti with the group twice and will return this May. She says the clinical experience and communication skills she has gained on these trips are unparalleled. “These trips help me to see what patient-physician interaction is like,” Cabbage says. It definitely takes you out of your comfort zone because it’s unlike everything we have here.” “ Just learning how to connect and interact with people who are quite different than I am is huge, and I feel like I’ve grown in that area. McBee says serving the underprivileged is vital whether at home or in the developing world, but serving in a country with such destitution and corruption is a humbling experience. “I know the first time that I saw the ultimate poverty I didn’t know how to function,” McBee said.
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