Community Corner

Local Marquette Student to Study Nursing in Peru

Kaitlin Adams will gain community clinical experience at a Catholic parish in Piura, Peru this summer.

A Shorewood native now studying at Marquette University will travel to Piura, Peru this summer for a nursing study abroad program.

In Piura, Marquette's Kaitlin Adams will gain community clinical experience at a Catholic parish called Sacramento Santisimo and will develop a global view of health care by being immersed in a new culture.

The summer program in Piura offers educational nursing experiences at all levels. Sacramento Santisimo parish has a full nursing staff and a health clinic including a surgical suite for visiting medical teams from the United States. If a medical team is visiting, Marquette students will assist in the pre- and post-surgical areas. In addition, students work in the parish clinic monitoring pregnant women and helping with general clinic duties.

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Most of the students' time spent in Peru will be working in Piura's surrounding villages to gain experience in a parish-operated hospice, practice teaching health-related information to school children, and provide care in emergency room and nursing home settings.

Students also conduct home visits in local villages to assess problems such as hypertension, diabetes and pressure sores, as well as to help with personal care and hygiene. All of the home visits are to patients and families who are part of the caseload of the nurses employed by Sacramento Santisimo.

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Dr. Darlene Weis, associate professor emerita of nursing, will lead two groups of nursing students participating in the Piura study abroad program this summer. The first group leaves Friday, June 1, and the second group leaves Friday, June 22. Each group will be in Piura for four weeks.

"This trip is an excellent opportunity for our students to experience nursing from a global perspective," Weis said. "Students will be thrust into a vastly different culture than that of the United States, and I believe their knowledge of the medical field will grow exponentially during their time in Peru."

2012 will mark the fifth year that Marquette University College of Nursing has offered the Piura, Peru, clinical experience for academic credit.

Throughout the trip, nursing students will be blogging about their experiences at: marquette.edu/nursing/news.shtml.


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