Compassion at a Distance: Student Nurses Study Abroad Twenty nursing students completed a clinical practicum in community and family health through the eyes of another cultural lens in Peru. College of Nursing’s Dr. Darlene Weis connected Marquette students with local nurses through a unique collaboration with Santisimo Sacramento, a local Catholic parish in Piura, Peru. Throughout the month long clinical practicum, students studied the local health care system while providing care for some of the most vulnerable members of the community. They partnered with local health care workers and community members to provide care for individuals across the lifespan in many diverse settings including clinics, a hospital, a nursing home, a school, a hospice, as well as in homes. This course pushes students to identify key health care challenges within Piura and the surrounding districts. In a country where 17% of urban and 54% of rural residents live in poverty, students investigated various determinants of health including education, nutrition, clean water and sanitation, pollution, communicable diseases and chronic disease burden. During one particular home visit, we returned to a home I had visited with students last year. Located across from the Catholic Chapel in a remote village, our local nursing colleague Jackie led us into the home of a woman named Felicita who was in bed and had been debilitated for 26 years by severe arthritis affecting all of her joints. We walked past smoldering coals on the sand floor and a table with pea pod husks attracting flies, evidence of recent meal preparation. Curious local children eating yucca roots followed us into the home. Felicita’s sister and caregiver wasn't ready for us to give her a bath, as she had not yet bought the herb needed to sooth Felicita's aching joints. As she laid in bed with a picture of the Virgin Mary over her head and empty soda bottles and plastic bags hanging on sticks in the reed and bamboo wall for future use, the students took her blood pressure and pulse and listened to her heart and lungs. They checked her bony spots for pressure ulcers, despite the soft cushion mattress she was laying on instead of straw ones many community members sleep on. She began to tear up in frustration with her situation, and they held her hand. Through exposure to another culture and its values, we can better understand our own. As nursing faculty and student nurses, we learn from the nurses and patients with whom we work and we try to share our nursing knowledge to improve the health of the community. As a study abroad program infused with the spirit of catholic social teaching, we serve our global community through our profession, emphasizing our shared values of equity, justice, and human dignity for all. We explored the world of nursing, our comforts and discomforts, our faith and profession, and we are enriched. Theresa Gruenke Simulation Coordinator/Clinical Instructor [email protected]