Meghan Casta hopes she'll be better able to take care of patients in Wisconsin after studying abroad.
Casta, a 2003 D.C. Everest High School graduate, is one of eight University of Wisconsin-Madison nursing students who will travel Saturday to Taxco, Mexico, a mining city of about 100,000 people south of Mexico City. There, they will work with doctors, nurses and patients for three weeks, teaching and learning.
The class will give students experience in global health, which will help them whether they work abroad or remain in the United States, said Roxane Gorbach, a nurse practitioner and professor leading the trip. The students will return to Wisconsin on June 9.
The students plan to ask questions to guide their work and their learning, Casta, 22, said.
"We don't want to come across as overbearing," Casta said, adding while the hospital in Taxco lacks resources, its doctors and nurses are professionals.
The students will take tools with them, including a microscope and a colposcope, used to diagnose and treat cervical cancer. Doctors in Taxco can detect the disease, but lack the tools to treat it, said Casta, who works 30 hours a week as a phlebotomist at Meriter Hospital in Madison.
The nursing students plan to conduct well-baby checks and basic dental exams. They also want to teach tuberculosis patients about the importance of taking their medications, Casta said. The disease there is "rampant," she said.
The student nurses will live with Mexican nurses during part of the trip, Gorbach said. They also will study with curanderas, or folk healers, people the city’s residents turn to for health care.
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