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Nursing students are headed to the tropics

Rebekah Hammond - Science & Tech Editor

As soon as the semester ends, two groups of TRU nursing students will leave for the tropical island of Samoa, not for a vacation, but a work opportunity.

Thirteen third-year students with their instructors, Mary Schigol and Mona Taylor, are going to Samoa where they will do six weeks of nursing practicum while another group is going to Lesotho, Africa.

"Students work in the both hospital and community health settings," said Schigol.

The trip is part of the nursing 339 course focusing on international nursing. In preparation for the trip, they discuss cultural differences between Canada and Samoa, such as more relaxed views on time, a strong sense of family units and responsibilities and traditional medicine.

"One of the things we're very careful of as TRU nurses is to really learn as much as we can from that culture," said Schigol. "Not come in with an idea that we're superior and that we've got this great healthcare system, because there's so much we can learn from them."

Schigol has taken other nursing classes to Samoa and learned a lot from working with Samoans.

"Their ways of communication, the women's committees, the integration of family with care is something to be commended," she said.

Samoa is an opportunity for students to learn about illnesses they're less likely to encounter here.

"There's a lot of doctors that are very open to teaching us about all kinds of things," Schigol said. "Of course we don't see typhoid fever here, we don't see rheumatic fever as much, we don't see dengue fever so i think the nursing students get a lot from that."

After hearing about Samoa in first year, nursing student Katie McLellan did some research on the island and knew she wanted to participate in third year.

"I fell in love with the tropics and wanting to go and experience that kind of nursing care," she said, excited to be a member of this year's group. "That's something I've always wanted to do since I heard the lady come speak to us."

Throughout the semester, the class has been fundraising and gathering medical supplies and nursing text books to take and leave.

Previous TRU nursing groups to Samoa took resources and learning materials to donate which has helped towards building a sustainable medical education, according to Schigol.

Returning nurses have two more semesters to complete before graduating. The experience from working overseas will strengthen their resumés.

"We're going to be so much more independent over there, it's not going to be as structured over there as the Canadian healthcare system," said McLellan. "You don't have all these fail safes; at times you might be the expert or might know more."

With the end of the semester approaching, there's still preparation and fundraising to be done, but McLellan is looking forward to the trip and has no worries about traveling to an island in the middle of the ocean for her practicum.

"I think it's going to be really fun and all the girls that are going, are all really excited," she said. "So I think it's mostly excitement over nerves."