College of DuPage nursing and eye care students get hands-on experience at Ecuador Health Clinic
A medical mission trip to Ecuador with College of DuPage affirmed Alaina Garcia's decision to go into the eye care field.
As an aspiring optometrist, Garcia recently traveled to Ecuador to venture into the health field and learn more about people and culture in different parts of the world.
"During the clinic, I got to witness many unique and extraordinary moments," said the COD student. "The moment a patient puts on the right pair of glasses and realizes they can finally read and see clearly is indescribable. Being able to help patients and experience moments like these has planted a seed of passion in me, and it will only continue to grow from here."
Garcia, along with six other COD Nursing and Ophthalmic Technician students, two adjunct faculty members and two assistant faculty members, traveled to Ecuador to participate in a medical mission trip offered through COD's Field and Experiential Learning, Study Abroad and Global Education office in partnership with Global Health Outreach. Students spent the week providing community health delivery at a clinic in Ecuador near the Gulf of Guayaquil.
Nursing students assisted with triage, taking patients' vitals, obtaining health histories, and performing blood glucose finger sticks, urinalysis and pregnancy tests. Ophthalmic Technician students helped with eye exams and distributed reading glasses to patients. The team of students and health care workers saw a total of 1,791 patients in four days.
COD Assistant Nursing Professor Julie Garcia said this was the first time the trip was offered and praised the students for applying what they learned through this unique opportunity.
"Our students experienced and witnessed things firsthand being abroad in a developing country that no classroom or clinical could provide them in America," she said. "It was a life-changing opportunity for our students to experience health care globally. In the future, our goal is to run another medical mission trip with our students and hopefully include additional Health Science disciplines from the College."
Learn more about the Nursing and Health Sciences Division at COD by visitingcod.edu/academics/divisions/health-sciences/.
Learn more about Field and Experiential Learning, Study Abroad and Global Education at COD at cod.edu/academics/academic_opportunities/field/.