Guest Bloggers

Every single one of my experiences abroad took me further into the world of global health – Global Health Alumni Interview with Julia Harris (2007, WCAS)
May 16, 2012 by Guest Bloggers
Name: Julia Harris (2007, WCAS)
Major: Anthropology (Human Biology)
Minor: Global Health

What did you do after graduation and where are you now?

Julia during her 3rd year clerkship at Soroka University Medical Center in Beer Sheva, Israel

I graduated in 2007 with a degree in Anthropology (Human Biology) and a minor in Global Health. I was pre-med, but I was not sure exactly what I wanted to do. I took the MCAT after my junior year and managed to get out a few med school applications right before I graduated. I knew that if I didn’t do the apps while in an academic environment I would never apply. What was more important to me at the time was to attempt to really work in some capacity in the global health world. So, I went to Brazil. I was born there and have a Brazilian passport, so I was able to get an internship at the National School of Public Health. I had an amazing experience. I split my time between research and shadowing a doctor who was doing a residency in public health. Public health is not a residency option in many countries; in American terms it’s a bit like family medicine mixed with an MPH. The public health residents ran a clinic located in the School of Public Health which serviced the low income communities who live in favelas surrounding the campus. In working at this clinic I had the opportunity to see the implementation of a primary care focused public health care system from multiple angles. I saw the process from policy making, to home visits and even clinical medicine. It was a phenomenal experience that really tied together the knowledge base I gained in undergrad and made me realize I really wanted to be a physician. I felt my inadequacies. I wanted a distinct skill set that could allow me to better serve the population and I decided I could do this best through the pursuit of an MD. It’s a great day when you suddenly know what you want to do, even if you know it’s going to take a lifetime to get there.

I was accepted to the Medical School for International Health while I was living in Brazil. This school is a 4-year American style medical school located in the deserts of southern Israel and was established in association with Columbia University. I graduate on May 23^rd, 2012 and will be working as resident physician in Obstetrics and Gynecology in Philadelphia at Drexel University’s Hahnemann Hospital.

Just a quick plug, cause I love my med school and it really is the perfect place to go if you want to go into medicine and global health all at once. My med school integrates a global health perspective into its curriculum and allowed me the opportunity to go to other countries such as India and Ethiopia to work in hospitals in a variety of interesting settings. Additionally, the day to day life here in Beer Sheva, Israel is quite diverse. The population served by our tertiary care center (where we study) is 50% Arabic speaking, predominately Bedouin. The other 50% is made up of immigrants from Russia and Ethiopia, refugees from Sudan and of course the Jewish population.

Which IPD program did you choose for your studies abroad and how has it influenced you?

While at Northwestern I studied abroad a few times, all along the lines of global health. I went on the Northwestern global health program to Mexico City the summer after freshman year. This really opened the doors for me. I was exposed to public health research, I shadowed doctors in a clinical setting, and I lived on my own in a foreign country for the first time. I had such an awesome time and realized that I could really pursue global health as an undergrad. This experience inspired me to continue to go abroad. In the summer after sophomore year I went to Buenos Aires to study Spanish and do a research internship at a public hospital. Then I went to South Africa on a global health SIT trip for the fall semester. During this trip I got involved in HIV/AIDS education and decided to return to South Africa to do my senior thesis. I was lucky enough to get an Undergraduate Research Grant (URG) which made the whole trip possible. Northwestern has so many opportunities for students who are interested in global health, as long as you are personally motivated people will get behind you and help you run after whatever dream you have (within reason).

Every single one of my experiences abroad took me further into the world of global health. There are so many lessons to learn from cultural sensitivity (trust me I have committed every faux pas) to one’s own limitations in language, in academics, and personal boundaries. Every time I put myself out of my comfort zone I learned so much about myself. I became totally addicted to the thrill of landing somewhere completely new and having to figure it out. I also loved learning about a country through its health care system. Working in the health care field allows you a certain intimacy with people that perhaps we do not deserve. For instance as a physician I have been able to enter peoples’ lives, peoples’ homes and through them I have been exposed to such amazing cultures, languages and life lessons. However, I must say as a disclaimer two very important things. Firstly, I have learned that one does not need to leave the US to accomplish what I just described. It is completely possible to experience a diversity of cultures in the US. There are people lacking access to health care and good health care policies everywhere in the world. The second disclaimer I have to offer is that despite my training I am not sure I am the person to bring health to the world. No matter how culturally sensitive you attempt to be, walking into a clinic somewhere in a developing country you will never have all of the skills to truly understand the culture of those you are treating. That being said I do think that global health leads to an amazing and fulfilling life and career no matter how you approach it, I just think that one has to be realistic. It’s great to want to change the world and help people but know your limitations and be humble. I will relate a small story to express what exactly I mean to say.

What’s one life lesson that you have learned since you started working?

Julia taking blood pressure of a woman in a rural town in central India called Bhidi, where she was running a clinic during her 4th year elective

I had the opportunity to do an elective in rural India during my last year of medical school. I was shocked by what I saw. I felt that the Hippocratic Oath was being ignored left and right because the best medicine, which I had learned to administer was not being practiced. The innumerate barriers that existed to giving what I believed to be appropriate eventually revealed themselves. One day a man was brought in bleeding from a motor vehicle accident. My med school colleague and I were the only ones trained in CPR and we did our best while surrounded by a crowd of screaming villagers to save this patient. We then jumped in a van “ambulance” and continued our CPR while standing and travelling over 120 kilometers per hour towards the nearest tertiary care center. We were not successful. I was so angry about the lack of CPR training and the prevalence of such situations that necessitated it. Then I realized that the cost of training a nation in a technique that is overwhelmingly not successful and often results in a patient with great medical needs may not be financially beneficial. If I were the minister of health in India I may decide that investing in CPR is not my biggest priority or an efficient investment of the limited funds available.

Do you have any advice or suggestions for current global health students on how to get involved or how to choose their career path in global health?

I have loved the great majority of my international life for the past 9 years but there are ethical debates every day that I have with myself. I attempt to abide by the Hippocratic Oath and do no harm to those I have the privilege of treating or working with. However, despite my plethora of global health training I will on occasion do wrong. I will give patients treatments that do not mesh with their cultural or religious beliefs or I will accidently say things that offend and alienate my patients or colleagues. If you choose to work in global health I think it is best to remember that you are a guest in someone else’s world and it is your duty to learn from your hosts in addition to lending a hand.

If you want a career in global health you have to make it happen. Spend time finding a place, a project or a community that really inspires you and go. There are always people who need or want volunteers but if you want to really make a career in global health it involves a long term commitment, stepping out of your comfort zone and finding the right people who can open doors for you. It is always best to find an expat or an English-speaking person who has made his/her life as a foreigner successfully integrated into wherever it is you are trying to go. The right contact can be everything. OK that’s all I got, the rest is just a little bit of luck and a lot of perseverance.
Related posts:
Category: Brazil, India, Israel | Tags: Beer Sheva, Brazil, clinical medicine, Drexel University’s Hahnemann Hospital, Hippocratic Oath, HIV/Aids, home visits, Israel, Medical School for International Health, National School of Public Health, policy making, Public Health in Mexico, Undergraduate Research Grant, URG | Comments (0)
Uganda, Mali, and Burkina Faso… and maybe an MPH/MSW? But that’s for the future! Global Health Alumni Interview with Jorie Larson (2010, SESP)
April 23, 2012 by Guest Bloggers
Name: Jorie Larson (2010, SESP)
Major: Social Policy
Minor: Global Health

Only a few weeks after graduating from Northwestern University in the Spring of 2010, Jorie Larson was already on her way to Mali to work as a health education specialist with the Peace Corps. Two years later she is back in the US, temporarily, while getting ready for her next big step in her career: the Peace Corps Response Program in Burkina Faso. Read an interview with global health studies alumna Jorie Larson about her professional and personal experiences in various stages of her career.

Q: What did you do after graduation and where are you now?

Jorie organized a training for 16 local traditional birth attendants in her village Malinke, Mali

A: While at Northwestern, I completed my BS in Social Policy from SESP and a global health minor. Within weeks of my graduation ceremony I was en route to hot, dry Mali, West Africa to live in a small rural village as a health education specialist with the Peace Corps. My experience living there, up until recent weeks when the program was evacuated due to political instability, was one of the most valuable experiences, personally and professionally, in my life. I was posted in a village of 1,000 ethnic Malinke in a difficult-to-reach area of western Mali. My primary work revolved around maternal/child health, since up to 1 in 5 children in Mali dies before age 5 due to malnutrition, malaria, diarrheal disease, and other preventable illnesses. I primarily worked in conjunction with the local community health center, conducting a behavioral health survey of the community; standardizing a malnutrition outreach and infant growth monitoring program; creating Information, Education and Communication opportunities within and outside of the center; and working with both formal staff and informal, locally-chosen community health educators on preventive and health promotion efforts including vaccination and family planning education. While there, I also collaborated with the district hospital doctors to organize a training for the staff of 36 health centers on the visual inspection method for cervical cancer prevention in low-resource environments; on the local level, the doctor at my clinic worked with me to organize a training for traditional birth attendants, whose services were heavily relied upon in my area, on basic principles of safer home births. Next month, I’ll be moving to Burkina Faso to begin a year-long post with the Peace Corps Response program, focusing on combating child nutrition with the Center for Nutritional Rehabilitation and Education there. After that, I’m considering pursuing an MPH/MSW program…but that’s for the future.

Q: How did your global health studies at NU influence your career choice and your life in general?

A: Global health studies and my minor had a huge influence on my chosen path. As a social policy major, I did not plan to pursue clinical medicine but was very interested in health and access to health care as a social justice issue, and I knew I wanted to work on a global scale. I loved that the minor offered the chance to delve into global health from a variety of angles, from the policy side, the programmatic side, the epi side, and from the perspective of various sub-fields within global health. One of the favorite courses I took was “Community Health Program Planning,” where we did case studies of various health issues being tackled all over the world through innovative approaches, many of which were at least partly socio-behavioral in nature. It was really that class that got me thinking about what it might be like to work with an NGO or international organization on broad health issues, on finding locally-appropriate ways to increase access to health information and health care. As my time at Northwestern progressed and I was able to take a variety of GH courses, it became more clear to me that a career combining public health and social justice would be a good fit for me.

Q: Which IPD program did you choose for your studies abroad and how has it influenced you?

Jorie on the Northwestern IPD Public Health in Uganda Program in 2009

A: But it wasn’t until I went on the IPD study abroad program, Public Health in Uganda, that I really made a decision to pursue international health work immediately following graduation. I had been to Ghana on a brief HIV/AIDS related service trip before, but this was my first time to spend a significant amount of time in Africa. The program, which provided classroom experience in public health in the developing world as well as practical experience with an NGO, taught me a few things. 1) I had to find some way back to Africa, to live, for some substantial amount of time, 2) I wanted to get a better sense on the scope of health challenges in rural Africa, where most Africans live–there were many public health resources in the capital of Kampala, but I knew the difficulties and the need must be even greater in villages and in harder to reach areas, and 3) There was no need to choose between my interest in social justice/concern for the most vulnerable and my interest in public health. While in Uganda, I worked with an NGO for current and former street children, and we developed an educational drama on HIV/AIDS to share at a local school. It was in many ways the best of both worlds, as I got to work with vulnerable youth–which I’d done quite a bit in the States–and also to work on a very real and salient health challenge. I also had a great opportunity to see firsthand the anthropological aspects of public health, and how effective public health messages have to be culture- and resource-appropriate. I left Uganda after that spring quarter of my junior year knowing that I would look for international opportunities in health following graduation, and I applied to Peace Corps within two months of being home. In that sense, the Public Health in Uganda program had a major influence on my choices.

Q: Do you have any advice or suggestions for current global health students on how to get involved or how to choose their career path in global health?

A: My only piece of advice would be to be open-minded and try to take advantage of taking courses in a variety of different areas while you’re still at NU. One of the greatest things about the program, I think, is that it is broad and designed to be extremely flexible to your interests. We all have to take core GH courses, but really take a good look at courses in other disciplines, such as gender studies, anthropology, or international studies, and even look at seminars that may be salient to global health issues. For those minors who are not planning on going into any kind of medicine and are instead coming from a sociology, social work, anthropology, policy, or other background, know that there are so many ways to find meaningful work in global health; you needn’t be a doctor or nurse. Much of the public health work I’ve seen going on in Mali is preventative in nature, and public health needs social workers, policy makers, anthropologists, health educators, and development specialists just as it needs clinical medicine practitioners. If you’re on the fence about which direction you want to go, getting some grassroots experience, especially internationally through a volunteer program or with an NGO, might give you a good sense of what areas interest you–being in the Peace Corps gave me a chance to see different health issues at the ground level, and solidified my interest in maternal/child and reproductive health. Whether international or in the US with underserved populations, a good health field experience will make decisions about further study or a career path much easier, and many grad programs now prefer several years’ experience, so it will only be an advantage.

Q: What’s one life lesson that you have learned since you started working?

A: One life lesson I’ve learned from my work experience post graduation, so far, has been that having a sense of humor and remembering your purpose, is invaluable. Any kind of work in the developing world often goes at a glacially slow pace, and there will inevitably be ridiculous setbacks and moments when the enormity of the fight you’re fighting seems impossible–but there are also beautiful moments when you realize that each person that you can influence positively, be it a colleague at the health center or a mother of a malnourished child or a secondary school student in a health class–is one person empowered to be healthier, and one by one is how real change occurs and is sustained. Laugh at yourself, do it often (Mali taught me that) and remember that each relationship that you build is important–though you may not see the effects right away.
Related posts:
Category: Burkina Faso, Child Health, Global Health Alumni Series, Health Education, Mali, Nutrition, Uganda | Tags: Community Health Program Planning, Global Health minor, Health Education Specialist, Mali, Peace Corps, Public Health in Uganda | Comments (1)
Practical Advice from an International Nonprofit Professional for Students Interested in Globally Engaged Work
January 20, 2012 by Guest Bloggers
Kay Kim, WCAS '07, Biochemistry/Global Health

This “Practical Advice for Students” was written by Northwestern Global Health Alum Kay Kim, who serves as the Resource Development Director at a non-profit that promotes community-driven development projects around the world, called Global Peace Connect! (www.globalpeaceconnect.org).

Advice for students:

#1: Write down your goals and you are bound to achieve them. Dare to be great and dream big!

#2: You are the average of your five closest friends. Surround yourself with people who are passionate and positive in their outlooks. Also, having a mentor in your professional life, be it your best friend or a colleague in a leadership position, is crucial.

#3: Incorporate writing and speaking classes. Effective communication skills are highly desirable in any profession. Immerse yourself in different kinds of writing – academic research, journalistic-style, business, etc. Having publications under your belt will definitely be a plus, whether or not they are published in academic journals or in student magazines.

#4: Expose yourself to different classes that require different skill-sets. Don’t limit yourself to classes pertaining to your major. I came to NU as an Integrated Science Program (ISP) major, graduated with a degree in biochemistry, went into finance and now work for a nonprofit. You never know where life will take you. In retrospect, I wish I had incorporated social science and economics classes!

#5: Be active on/off-campus. Take leadership roles in a student group or in an on-campus job. You’ll not only fine-tune your leadership skills but you will also gain people-skills. One of the challenges I often face while working in a team environment is in dealing with all types of personalities – including the difficult ones!

#6: How many languages can you speak? Take a language course and supplement it with a studyabroad, internship or travel overseas. Get acquainted with new cultures and languages, especially if you are interested in working in a specific region or country overseas.

#7: Network, network, network! Different colleges at NU offer great seminars and conferences which are the places to network with professionals or professors who are already working in the field. Outside of NU, see what the city has to offer. Think tanks such as the Chicago Council on Global Affairs always host events around the issues of development. If there is a seminar on an issue that you are passionate about, use the time to gain knowledge and to engage with NGO professionals. Also, ask if they have any openings for internships or jobs.

#8: How is your web 2.0 (Blog, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn)? Use social media networks to get in touch with professionals and to learn more about the professions of your interest. You might want to join a LinkedIn group comprised of experts in the field of your interest to engage in their conversations or to ask for advice about how they got there. Someone is bound to give you a lead. For news coverage, are you following any of these global development experts on twitter? (http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/2011/sep/21/global-development-twitter-users-follow)

#9: Your first job after graduation might be menial or less-interesting than what you thought it would be. Try to learn as much from the job. Also, see how you can contribute to your team or to the organization. What is your “legacy” that transcends your tenure? For example, a legacy can be introducing an innovative method that effectively increases team communication and productivity. Or maybe it can be the way you influence people around you. How do you want to be remembered by your colleagues? What will you leave behind for your organization?

#10: I discovered after a couple of years that I didn’t like working in the private sector so I quit and tried something else. What you have envisioned yourself to be might not be the same after college; be flexible and patient with yourself. Your priorities, interests or circumstances might change over the years. Being a twenty-something is all about discovering yourself, your strengths/weaknesses and interests. Give yourself the time to try out different things to see what works for you and what doesn’t. Above all, follow your passion!
Related posts:
Category: General | Tags: career advice, Civic Engagement, student advice, work abroad | Comments (1)
Good, Better, and Breast: Cool Breast Cancer Arts Initiatives
August 16, 2011 by Guest Bloggers
By: Chris Miller
Major: Psychology, Minor: Global Health
WCAS, 2012

Whenever I do online research for a project or report, I get distracted – easily. It’s not uncommon for me to find myself having wasted huge chunks of time on Google Trends. Trends, one of about a thousand (last time I checked) features/services offered by Google, gives users info about the search volume of a given topic over time. For instance, if you look up “Northwestern University” on Trends, you’ll see a nifty graph with a tough-to-explain-to-your-grandma peak in March of 2011. Using Trends is an excellent way to waste time while doing web research. What a great feeling, then, to use Trends for something productive.

If you type “breast cancer” into Google Trends, you’ll notice something right off the bat. Every October, without fail, there is a spike in Google searches for the topic. October is breast cancer awareness month, which, (very) apparently, lives up to its name. Between the pink ribbons, the awareness walks and runs, and the collaboration with big-name partners, Breast Cancer Awareness Month catches our attention; awareness campaigns succeed in increasing public knowledge about health concerns. In the case of breast cancer, the campaigns have been known to raise knowledge about treatment and prevention and to raise screening rates. They involve the collaboration between lots of different communities (just ask the football player in pink). Shouldn’t the arts community get in on the action?

And of course they do. The California-based Keep A Breast Foundation is doing an awesome job using art to raise health awareness. One of their coolest initiatives combines painting and three dimensional art. Women who are newly diagnosed with breast cancer are given the opportunity to have plaster casts made of their breasts, before undergoing any surgeries. The casts are then painted by pro artists in cool, creative ways. The women use the casts to document their cancer journeys. In addition, casts are displayed at Keep A Breast events to raise breast cancer awareness. Keep A Breast also recently partnered with street artist Shepard Fairey (I’m guessing maybe you’ve seen this) to bring us the Non-Toxic Revolution, a campaign that uses street-art style work to educate about dangerous toxins associated with breast cancer. Keep A Breast isn’t the only organization to use artwork in raising awareness. There was also the Voices and Visions art exhibit in Lake Oswego, Oregon. The exhibit, at the Lakewood Center for the Arts in Lake Oswego, featured work by artists whose lives had been impacted by breast cancer (survivors, previvors, family members, and friends).

The involvement of the arts community in raising breast cancer awareness extends beyond painting and 3-D art. One of the most unique breast cancer initiatives is the annual Breast Fest Film Festival in Toronto. The fest screens a number of films related to breast cancer. Last year’s film topics ranged from women with breast cancer in the UAE to a Singapore breast cancer survivors’ boat racing team. The fest also includes a speaker series, a comedy show, and (my favorite part) a film contest where the public can submit short films about breast cancer. Several films are chosen by a panel and screened at the fest. The audience votes on the best film. This is such a cool way for all sorts of people to get involved in public health awareness efforts. Breast cancer can also be addressed through theater. Actress ‘Rie Shontel performs in Mama Juggs, a one woman show tackling breast health. Shontel plays four different characters, among them her mother who died of cancer. Mama Juggs will be showing at the Chicago Fringe Festival in Pilsen this September.

You might be wondering where I’m going with all this. Recently, I started a project to look at the ways in which the arts community can be involved in public health. I’m focusing on arts campaigns/initiatives directed at fighting five winnable health battles listed as priorities for the Chicago Department of Public Health (CDPH): tobacco, obesity, teenage/unintended pregnancy, HIV/AIDS, and (you’ll never guess…) breast cancer disparities. In the US, poor people suffer from higher breast cancer mortality rates; Chicago is no different. The breast cancer mortality rate is also higher among black and Hispanic women. And there is no reason why arts campaigns can’t address these disparities. I’ve been meeting with the Commissioner of the CDPH (also a professor at Northwestern) and showing him what I come up with. Potentially (hopefully!), initiatives similar to the ones I’ve talked about will spring up around Chicago. Chicago has one of the biggest, best, and, yes, artsiest arts communities of any city around. Why shouldn’t the windy city’s arts community be part of a unique, refreshing approach to fighting public health battles?

Also, these:

http://www.singtolive.org/

http://somd.com/news/headlines/2010/11630.shtml

http://boss.blogs.nytimes.com/tag/graphic-iv-art-bra-fashion-show-art-auction/
Related posts:
Category: Chicago, Public Health, Women's Health | Tags: Art, Breast Cancer, Breast Cancer Awareness Month, Chicago Department of Public Health, Google Trends | Comments (0)
Researching the growing prevalence of diabetes and hypertension in rural Bolivia
July 24, 2011 by Guest Bloggers
Hola desde Bolivia!

We are Annsa, Danielle, and Gabby, and the three of us are recent Northwestern graduates, moving (perhaps a little too) quickly into the start of our M1 year at Feinberg. We are currently wrapping up our summer abroad in rural Bolivia, where we have been working with Centro Medico Humberto Parra (CMHP), a free primary-care clinic situated in the country’s eastern rainforest. CMHP is located in the small village of Palacios, about a 2 hour’s drive outside of the city of Santa Cruz.

To address the growing prevalence of diabetes and hypertension in the region, CMHP has recently established its own diabetes prevention and management program, which utilizes community health leaders to facilitate diabetes and hypertension support groups in their respective villages. However, the clinic faces a severe lack of data regarding the burden of diabetes in each individual community that it serves. After contacting health professionals at CMHP, the three of us identified a need for research on the prevalence of diabetes, hypertension, and other relevant risk factors in the clinic’s surrounding villages.

For this reason, the three of us have spent these past two months in Palacios, screening for diabetes and hypertension in four communities surrounding the clinic: La Arboleda, Buena Vista, Yapacani, and Warnes. With this research, we hope to provide CMHP with a broader, more comprehensive body of knowledge relating to the health demographics of its surrounding villages.

Our method consisted of conducting a brief interview with participants about their medical history, diet, general health and exercise habits, in addition to measuring height, weight, blood pressure and blood glucose levels. Because we had to measure participants’ fasting blood glucose levels (before they had consumed any food), most of our work was done in the early morning. We would wake up between 5:30 am and 6 am, always before sunrise, gather our materials and supplies, and head out in the clinic’s SUV. We spent about six mornings in each community, interviewing participants and collecting data.

We would arrive at our designated location within each community, which ranged from someone’s house to the sidewalk in the main market to the local health post. Our location changed every few days to increase exposure and reach a different group of participants. Sometimes, we would arrive at our spot and there would already be people waiting in line and other times, people would trickle in after reading our sign or seeing the crowd. It was really astounding how people would wait in line for over an hour just to have their blood pressure and glucose levels measured!

We learned to work efficiently, with what resources and space we had. One table, a few chairs, one balance, a stadiometer to measure height, three sphygmomanometers, three glucometers, and a few boxes of lancets and test trips. Each of us would take one participant, explain the purpose of our study and start with the interview, ask our questions, measure weight, height, blood pressure and blood glucose levels.

Although all three of us speak Spanish, at times, it was still difficult to communicate with participants either because they did not exactly understand our questions (specifically related to the concept of chronic disease and exercise) or would use Bolivian slang and special words that needed further explanation, especially when it came to talking about diet and work. For example, a lot of our participants were amas de casas, or housewives, making it difficult for both them and us to judge how truly active their lifestyles were. After all, we’ll agree that running after small children and doing laundry by hand every day can be tiresome, but is it the same thing as playing fútbol or going for a run? That’s something for us to work out as we start analyzing our data. As a whole, however, it was great to talk to these people about their daily lives and habits, and we definitely became very familiar with the Bolivian lifestyle.

We talked to over 450 people and made lots of new friends, to the point where we would recognize people who had participated in our study. In La Arboleda, one of the women made us breakfast after we finished with our study (coffee, cuñapes, and quinoa cake). In Buena Vista, participants would return on the following days just to chat with us and see how we were doing. The local community health leaders in Warnes would treat us to salteñas, a typical Bolivian breakfast pastry. Meanwhile in Yapacani, the health leader’s adorable 2-year-old daughter, Sari, would come play with us when we were done working. We were even interviewed in two different communities by reporters and showcased on the nightly news, speaking our finest Spanish of course! Every place we went, we were welcomed by the community and graced with willing and friendly participants.

One of the early difficulties we faced while conducting our study was trying to explain the concept of chronic disease with our participants. For the most part, Bolivian understanding of health tends to be more immediate in nature, influenced by the belief that chronic diseases like diabetes can be cured with a single doctor’s visit. Even those participants who had been previously diagnosed with diabetes had trouble grasping the importance of consistently taking their medication as prescribed.

We encountered many patients who told us that they had diabetes and/or only took their medication when they “felt bad.” Many did not realize that diabetes is chronic, meaning it occurs from one year to the next and necessitated constant monitoring. We had to explain that it was not a disease that could be controlled sporadically but required taking medication daily to maintain a normal blood glucose level. If anything at all, our study served as an educational campaign in these four communities, as we were able to teach hundreds of people not only important steps to diabetes prevention and management, but the basic tenets of living a healthy and active lifestyle.

As we wrap up our time here in Bolivia, we can say with absolute conviction that this has been an incredible verano – an unparalleled learning experience that we will surely continue to draw from for the rest of our lives.
Related posts:
Category: Bolivia, Community Health | Tags: Centro Medico Humberto Parra, diabetes, hypertension, Palacios | Comments (0)

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Guest Bloggers

Every single one of my experiences abroad took me further into the world of global health – Global Health Alumni Interview with Julia Harris (2007, WCAS)

Uganda, Mali, and Burkina Faso… and maybe an MPH/MSW? But that’s for the future! Global Health Alumni Interview with Jorie Larson (2010, SESP)

Q: What did you do after graduation and where are you now?

Q: How did your global health studies at NU influence your career choice and your life in general?

Practical Advice from an International Nonprofit Professional for Students Interested in Globally Engaged Work

Good, Better, and Breast: Cool Breast Cancer Arts Initiatives

Researching the growing prevalence of diabetes and hypertension in rural Bolivia

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