Saturday, November 1, 2003

This presentation is part of : Models in Student Nurse Service Learning

Linking Cultural Competence and Community Service Learning: An International Experience

Irene Gonzales, PhD, RN, CNP, School of Nursing, School of Nursing, San Jose State University, San Jose, CA, USA
Learning Objective #1: Provide an example of an international community service-learning project where students care for at-risk children
Learning Objective #2: Demonstrate one method by which nursing students learn and practice cultural competency and cultural sensitivity in an international community-based setting

In Cusco, Peru, there are approximately 7000 street children who survive by drawing and painting in the streets, creating beautiful artwork that is sold to visiting tourists. Huch’uy Runas (Quechua for: “little highly evolved people”) is a refuge for street children between the ages of 5 and 16 years of age. Some of the children have been orphaned or abandoned, and live-in full time. These at-risk children suffer from chronic nutritional, dermatologic, and gastrointestinal problems. Safety, hygiene, dental care, and other anticipatory guidance concerns are common.

As part of a university community service learning grant, students and nurse practitioner faculty lived in Cusco for a month and ran a pediatric primary care clinic. Based on needs assessment results, students ran workshops in “handwashing”, “first-aid”, and “lice screening and treatment.” The group worked closely with staff and teachers at Huch’uy Runas, and held first aid classes for them and the older children. The students and faculty helped to link a medicinal plant community project to Huch’uy Runas, and helped the children to plant, care for, and utilize these plants for their own use in preventing and curing illness.

In an ever increasing challenge to provide clinical experiences for graduate and undergraduate nursing students, a link was created between the classroom and an international community of children in need. In exchange, students and faculty enhanced their cultural sensitivity, learned and practiced a new language, and had the opportunity to practice in an environment where resources were limited. The group toured a hospital in Lima, a local indigenous healthcare clinic in Cusco, and a community project that grows and harvests traditional medicinal plants.

This United States nursing group has been invited to return yearly to maintain this unique connection between practice and theory, and to continue to develop international citizenship and cultural competence.

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