After driving for hours through dense jungle and undergrowth, the students and professors on the Ecuador Global and Population Health Nursing Practicum were excited to see a village crest on the horizon. Due to civil unrest in Ecuador, hospital visits that normally occur on the trip were not possible, yet the experiences in these northern, remote towns, provided new opportunities.
A new aspect of this trip was the partnership between the college of engineering and the college of nursing in Ibarra. While the colleges have worked together in the past, this was the first time for practicum to interact with the College of Engineering. Nursing students accompanied the engineers on home visits to provide the prostheses and interview the patients on any of their health needs and accessibility to care. “We would always pair up an engineering and a nursing student to go do these interviews and both would come back with suggestions because they think through the processes differently,” shared Professor Thatcher. Nursing students would understand health needs, like ulcers or ease of use, while engineering students would look for fine tuning approaches. The collaboration gave a well-rounded approach to helping these patients long-term.
The town of Otavalo also readily provided the team with opportunities to teach. In a partnership with the mayor’s office, students taught the residents about CPR and first aid skills. The government also gave a list of community needs and topics that they want their citizens to be familiar with. While teaching, students conducted screenings for blood sugar, blood pressure, and BMI. That information was then passed on to local doctors if the patient requested it. Porter Dowell, a student on the trip, shared that “seeing how far away they are from health care and providing them with simple screening processes was memorable, because most of them have never even been to a doctor before.”
While in Otavalo, students were also accompanied by a traditional medicine woman named Margarita who taught the students her techniques. She uses a lot of herbal remedies that have been passed down through generations. Margarita has also been a midwife in the region for 45 years and has never lost a baby. “She even walked us through the forest picking all these different leaves and herbs sharing that they could help with headaches and cancers,” shared Professor Thatcher. Another traditional healer also showed them the indigenous approaches to ritual healing still common in the country. The students even got to participate in one of the healing processes. Seeing these two types of healing converge was eye-opening for many of the students.
The students then took long canoes out to a small town called Tena in the Amazon Basin. Schools in the region don’t receive as many nursing visits, and the college has a strong relationship with partner schools there. The team aided in teaching classes about reproductive health to the students. Ambar Cortez Ayala, an Ecuadorian student who went on the trip, was amazed at how the teens responded to the lessons. “They came with their questions, and they really wanted to learn,” said Ambar. “Now that I get to teach, it was very touching to see how many people need the help and how little information they're given. They trusted us.”
Now that I get to teach, it was very touching to see how many people need the help and how little information they're given.
The girls felt comfortable sharing troubles that were going on in their lives. One girl in particular “unloaded all these things that she had with life (bullying, sex education, etc.) and it was really special because I really felt guided by the Spirit to talk to this girl,” shared Ambar. “There were some things that I said that I think came from loving Heavenly Father because they were not from my mouth. I got a sense after talking to her that despite everything she's going through, Heavenly Father has her and I know that He is going to take care of her.”
Porter found connections with people at a BYU-hosted stake health fair. He was in charge of the first aid department and taught about slings, band-aids, and cuts. Many stake participants had experiences with injuries and teaching them skills to help when far from a hospital would help long-term. Reflecting on the experience he shared that “teaching them about things they can do in their day to day lives, felt similar to Christ teaching simple spiritual things to help people. Things that may seem like simple knowledge are going to help them in an emergency situation.”
Ambar was grateful to serve in her home country. “Now that I have even more knowledge, I’m glad I could give more back to the community that raised me,” she said. In spite of not being able to alleviate poverty or help financially, Ambar feels that the College of Nursing still made a marked difference for her people. Equipped with connections with doctors in the country, Ambar hopes to return one day to provide more care.
As the students bid farewell to Ecuador, they were glad knowing that they had impacted many lives. To read more on the experiences that nursing students had, you can read articles that were published in Ecuador below.
