Nursing Students' Ukrainian Trip "Experience of a Lifetime"

Several School of Nursing students and faculty members are trading the typical sun and fun associated with spring break for work in the cold and snowy Ukraine.

Ten undergraduate students, two graduate students and two faculty members left March 18 for Kiev, Ukraine, and will return March 29. Lynne Horecky, a senior nursing student, expects the 11-day trip to be a learning experience.

“I’ll be curious to see what diseases and illnesses are prevalent in their population and how it compares to Mississippi and the United States,” she said.

Dr. Kaye Bender, dean of the School of Nursing, said the group traveling to the Ukraine should be commended. Each traveler paid her own way – a total of $2,300 each – to provide medical care to people who live in rural areas and lack access to physicians.

“This is a unique experience which will expose them to the challenges of providing health care to a different culture, but in that culture's environment,” Bender said. “We attempt to teach those concepts in the classroom, but to experience them first-hand will be a learning experience of a lifetime.”

Dr. Kaye Wilson, assistant professor of nursing, had visited Kiev last year and some students had inquired about making the trip with her this year. Students will earn community clinical credit while working in rural villages outside Kiev. Wilson and Dr. Bonnie Davis, associate professor of nursing, as well as mental health nurse practitioner students Karen Graves-Posey and Kerry Kokaisel, will offer lectures to health care professionals.

The group will take donated medical supplies and buy additional supplies once they arrive in Kiev. Students also will have the opportunity to work with Dr. Richard Price, an alumnus of the School of Medicine who works in family medicine in Kiev.

“It’s a good opportunity for students to learn about culture, politics and the health system,” Wilson said. “It gives them a global view of health.”

Graves-Posey said the Ukraine’s mental health system is in its infancy, and she wants to see how health professionals are adapting.

“I think it will be interesting to explore how they’re treating patients with mental illness,” she said.

Graves-Posey’s husband, Ken, is joining her on the trip. Ken Posey, a cytotechnologist in the Department of Pathology, said the experience should teach them to value the health care provided in this country.

“We are fortunate to have wonderful health care here in the U.S.,” he said. “I think it’s a good opportunity to give back some things.”

On the return trip, the group will stop in London and students will visit the Florence Nightingale Museum, which pays homage to the English nursing pioneer.

- Patrice Sawyer Guilfoyle (3/21/05)

2005-03-21 00:00:00 2620