Nicaragua
Nicaragua Service Immersion Trip
During spring break in March 2018, a group of 14 students and faculty from the Connell School of Nursing traveled to one of the poorest communities in Nicaragua to provide primary care and health education to its residents and to learn more about that country's health care, social, and political systems.
The Connell School team worked at the Nueva Vida Clinic in Ciudad Sandino, where the community endures extreme poverty, lack of basic resources, poor sanitation, and insufficient access to health care—conditions that contribute to many health issues, especially among children. The community depends on the clinic’s staff, as well as on residents who serve as part-time health promoters, for care.
As the BC nurses visited the homes of residents and supported the work of Nueva Vida, they witnessed the resilience and strength of the people of this community. Videographers from BC’s Office of University Communications documented their experiences.
Undergraduate Nursing Student Reflections
Mary Ladesic
“I have gained so much from this experience, even more then I have given.”
Lea Nelligan
“... contrasting my experience as a nurse to other nurses and the differences in the health care systems”
Kaitlyn Patel
“... finding places where social injustices occur and just how one person can make a difference…”
Graduate Nursing Student Reflections
Samantha Bondaryk
Family Nurse Practitioner Program
“It’s important to meet people where they’re at and try to leave behind your own expectations…”
Diane Quinones
Pediatric Nurse Practitioner Program
“Kids have such a great lens of looking at the world…”
Hannah Ruede
Adult/Geriatric Nurse Practitioner Program
“You are given this opportunity to really enter into the life of another…”
Faculty Reflections
Rosemary Byrne, RN, MS, FNP-BC
Clinical Instructor
“Your opportunity is, just be…”
Sherri St. Pierre, MS, APRN, PPCNP-BC
Clinical Assistant Professor
“... sit as a group, process that and talk about it and support each other…”
Melissa Sutherland, Ph.D., FNP-BC
Associate Professor
“What I see in the BC nurses is this commitment to humanity, this commitment to social justice…”