Students (l to r) Lauren O'Neill, Alexandra D'Angelo and Rachele Degraff meet with a family San Francisco, near Copan Ruinas
Published April 21, 2015, last updated on May 18, 2021 under Education News
In March, a team of 14 students and four faculty leaders traveled 3,000 miles southwest of Durham to the small town of Las Mercedes, Honduras, where they administered basic healthcare to nearly 453 local residents in four days.
The 10-day trip was part of an ongoing effort to provide Duke nursing and medical students with hands-on experience in global health while improving access to healthcare in rural areas of Honduras.
Dennis Clements, professor of global health, pediatrics, and community and family medicine, has led the annual trips since 2000, when he was asked by the Duke University School of Nursing to develop a global health education course as part of a small grant.
Alongside leaders from Heifer International, he initiated the planning and construction of a local clinic in Las Mercedes. Every year since then, he takes a team of students and faculty to that town and others to treat upper respiratory infections, skin problems, dehydration, muscular and skeletal aches and a variety of other issues.
Nursing and Medical Students Provide Care for Many in Mountain Village
This year’s team consisted of 10 nursing students and four medical students, all of whom took Clements’ 10-week course on Honduran culture, history and views on medicine. The selected team was chosen from the class participants through a competitive application process and included people from different backgrounds in order to ensure the team had an interdisciplinary approach to their work in Honduras.
Upon arrival, the team unloaded supplies and adjusted to the elevation of Las Mercedes, a mountain town that sits 5,000 feet above sea level. They spent the following day working in the clinic, getting comfortable speaking Spanish, and reviewing how to treat the most common diseases. Each day got busier, and the last was the busiest. In just the morning on Monday, the team saw 135 patients, more than any other team had seen in an entire day.
Students Developed a Connection with Local Patients
“It’s great to see how much they empathize with the patients,” Clements said. “The most important thing we give our patients is respect and friendship, and that’s what the students did.”
Rachele Degraff, a medical student graduating this spring, emphasized how wonderful it was to hear from an 80-year-old man who told her how much the group from Duke and Heifer International changed the health of the village over time.
“His reply put tears in my eyes,” Degraff said. “He helped me to see how even though our group was only able to be there a short time, the community had experienced long-term benefits from the continual relationship with Duke. It was an honor to get to be a part of something so meaningful.”
After four full days in Las Mercedes, the team traveled to a Chorti village outside the town of Copan Ruinas to provide similar clinical services, where they saw an additional 48 patients. While there, they also performed vignettes to teach the kids about parasites, body mechanics, tooth brushing and dehydration.
The Trip Is an Opportunity to Cultivate Mutual Respect and Understanding
For Maria Noviani, a third-year medical student from the Duke-National University of Singapore program, the 10-day trip helped her gain a better understanding of the values, cultures and socioeconomic conditions of several communities in Honduras.
Clements says the experience outside of the American medical system builds students’ confidence, diagnostic skills and understanding of other cultures. He adds that the situation also lends itself to helping the students appreciate the strengths that other disciplines bring to the medical team.
“The nurses learn what medical students go through. The medical students see the skills of a nurse, who could have gone to medical school, but chose a different approach,” said Clements. “We’ve brought 150 students here over the last 10 years, and it has been transformative for some of them. I hope they all leave more sensitive to how to help a patient as a person.”
Although the Duke team travels to the clinic only once a year, a local nurse manages the clinic year-round.
