Tennessee Tech nursing students recently completed a five-day global studies experience in Southern Belize to provide medical care and support to rural communities.
Professor of Nursing Jennifer Mabry said the students worked alongside Belizean nurses, physicians, and community health workers to gain hands-on experience. Mabry said the group practiced in a variety of settings including a regional hospital, a polyclinic, and a remote village.
“The experience that the students get from going to Southern Belize is similar to what they experience in rural Upper Cumberland,” Mabry said. “But the difference is that they’re dealing with a different healthcare system.”
Mabry said the students observed both inpatient and outpatient care, which is a departure from traditional clinical rotations that often focus solely on hospital settings. Mabry said the students visited a remote village where they met with a community health worker to develop an exercise program for local women.
“So those three different experiences on what a nurse can do really kind of opens up and expands what they understand about community nursing,” Mabry said. “First, they were a little shocked and didn’t really know how to react.”
Mabry said the faculty leaders taught the students how to provide effective healthcare while working with limited resources. Mabry said the students were able to step in and assist almost immediately during a nursing shortage.
“I feel that our Tennessee Tech nursing students are very well prepared, especially when they have these hands-on clinical experiences and they realize that it is a team effort and that we are to build relationships and help one another,” Mabry said. “Cultural humility, I think, is one thing, and how to be resourceful with your healthcare delivery and interprofessional relationships with doctors, nurses, anybody there in the hospital, phlebotomy, X-ray.”
Mabry said Tennessee Tech is the only nursing school in the United States that sends students to the Toledo district, which is a very rural area of the country.
“The students, first of all,” Mabry said. “It’s amazing to watch them grow in just the few days that we’re there and their confidence in their abilities. We only take senior nursing students, so they have the foundations. And just being around them actually invigorates and inspires me to continue to go back to Belize.”
Mabry said the experience is designed to broaden the perspective of the students regarding global health while reinforcing that compassionate care is universal.
“The importance of building those relationships across communities and how to be resourceful,” Mabry said. “And to believe in what you know. Be confident in what Tennessee Tech has taught you.”