Featured Story
Destination Costa Rica
Mount Carmel Students:
at home and abroad
Experience is one of the most important teaching tools when it comes to preparing young persons to answer their life’s calling to become proficient and knowledgeable professional nurses.
At Mount Carmel College of Nursing, we also want our nurses to be compassionate and have understanding for the wide variety of people they will encounter in practice. Experience is the best way to nurture these qualities, too, so that’s why we offer students a variety of opportunities to interact with people from all walks of life – including walks that may be very different from their own lives thus far – by organizing mission trips at home and abroad.
“This experience changed me by showing me a different world and reinforcing for me why I want to become a nurse – to care for people no matter what their economic situation, they should all be treated the same,” recalls sophomore Megan Cleveland.
In October, Laura Lawrence, BSN, RN, student health nurse, and Meredith Douds (’14), BSN, RN, instructor, accompanied eight MCCN students to San Jose, Costa Rica. Through the travel organization, International Volunteer HQ (IVHQ), the students and faculty members performed health assessments and screenings – with the supervision of a Costa Rican physician – on adults and children at Maximo Nivel, a local mission. The group also visited a local hospital where they heard a physician discuss Costa Rican healthcare and medical education. Relaxation and recreation included touring a coffee plantation, hiking to view magnificent waterfalls, and visiting with locals while taking Salsa dance lessons.
“As we embarked on the mission, I asked students to think about what kind of nurse they wanted to be so they could absorb the culture and adapt to the needs of patients in Costa Rica, to help them become that,” says Laura. “The students really dove into the experience, seeing more than 300 people over four days – I’m very proud of our Mount Carmel presence,” she adds.
By staying with a local family, the group was able to eat meals typical for the native people and experienced a comfortable environment, even without the unlimited hot water to which they are accustomed at home. Future plans include fundraising to purchase vitamins and food items to send at the holidays...