Costa Rica trip provides ‘invaluable’ lessons for nursing students

UNMC nursing student David Hutchenson checks the throat of a child patient in Costa Rica.

Melissa Davis — who recently received her bachelor of science in nursing from UNMC — with children she helped treat in Costa Rica.

Costa Rica is a tropical paradise with sparkling beaches, lush green valleys and friendly people.

For nine nursing students from the UNMC College of Nursing West Nebraska Division, it also is a place to brush up on medical Spanish and hone nursing skills.

“We had a lot of fun while we were there, but what we learned was invaluable,” said David Hutcheson, a senior nursing student.

In recognition of the work the students did during their service trip, the Nebraska State Student Nursing Association awarded them with the Community Health Award at the state convention in February for the impact they had on the health of the communities they served during the service trip.

“The trip was eye-opening,” Hutcheson said. “We worked beside the nurses in the clinics doing diabetes education and health assessments and then would spend four hours every afternoon in intense medical Spanish classes.”

Along with Hutcheson, graduate student Shelia House, recent bachelor of science in nursing graduate Melissa Davis, and nursing students Jordan Colwell, Andrew Miller, Heather Steele, Hayley Anderson, Nichole Fitzke and Greg Taylor went on the trip. Linda Bull, a family nurse practitioner and instructor in the UNMC CON West Nebraska Division, facilitated the trip and accompanied the students.

Besides working in the children’s immunization clinic in the National Hospital in Grecia, Costa Rica, the students also made home visits and helped out at several satellite clinics in the area.

“The trip was eye-opening. We worked beside the nurses in the clinics doing diabetes education and health assessments and then would spend four hours every afternoon in intense medical Spanish classes.” David Hutcheson

The highlight of the trip, Bull said, was the day they went to an elementary school in a poorer section of the region to conduct physicals. The students set up various stations in one room of the school that checked everything from a student’s height, weight and vital signs, to neurological assessments to their ear, nose, throats and mouths.

“The students there were very timid and reluctant to come into the room we were in,” she said. “After the first child came in we heard him tell the other kids waiting in the hallway, ‘it’s OK, they aren’t gringos, they’re doctors.'”

The whole trip was particularly relevant for the students, Bull said, because of the large number of people living in western Nebraska who speak Spanish or are of Latin descent.

“I know I grew a lot in becoming a more culturally competent nurse,” Hutcheson said. “I am now able to communicate with the Spanish speaking patients I encounter with more ease and make them feel more comfortable.”