"I've seen what it is like for people to be vulnerable in every sense - financially, mentally, and physically," said Courtney Pladsen, CSON '07. Reflecting on her recent medical service/immersion trip to Managua, Nicaragua, with nine fellow nursing students and three professors, Pladsen noted that after encountering the dire health conditions of the impoverished, she better understands the need for nurses to treat the patient as a whole person as opposed to focusing on the dealing with a localized injury. This was one of many lessons in both clinical nursing and social justice Pladsen and the other participants acquired during their stay in Managua, the capital of Nicaragua, one of the poorest countries in the Western Hemisphere.
The trip marks the first international service/immersion trip organized by Connell School of Nursing students and faculty. For Pladsen, the trip also fufilled her goal to return to Nicaragua with other Boston College nursing students and faculty following her trip to the country with the sociology department in the spring of 2005. Pladsen recognized the need for health care in the impoverished nation and believed it was important for such a research-based nursing program to branch out into the area of international community health. "The school of nursing here is so clinically focused, so involved with new technology, that community health isn't fully treated until senior year," said Pladsen.
During the summer of 2005, Pladsen met with professors who had been to Nicaragua on a faculty trip and the group exchanged ideas about where in Nicaragua students could stay, where they would work, and how the trip would be financed. Thereafter, details were solidified and the application process began during Pladsen's junior year. About 50-60 students applied for the trip, and preference was given to rising seniors because they had the most clinical nursing experience and were required to take a course on community health during their senior year.
