UNH nursing students traveled to Panama during the summer break to gain hands-on experience in global health.
The week-long trip in May was organized by the nursing department’s global health care group in collaboration with Kambia, an organization that partners with Global Brigades to provide international service opportunities focused on healthcare.
Assistant Professor Gibran Mancus, who led the trip, says the experience was open to first- and second-year nursing students and provided them an opportunity to gain clinical experience internationally.
“There’s a real challenge for primary health care in Panama,” Mancus says. “They technically have universal health care, but it's primarily in Panama City, and it’s very difficult for people in rural areas to get to Panama City. This program helps to bridge the gap between primary care and the needs of people in rural areas.”
Making a Difference Far from Home
The 12 students traveled to Higueronal in Eastern Panama, where a health clinic was set up at an elementary school.
The students worked alongside local doctors and pharmacists to conduct over 100 health screenings, assisting them with patient consultations and taking vital signs (blood pressure, height, weight, temperature), all while communicating primarily in Spanish, with the help of a translator.
For nursing student Lauren Barnes ‘26, the trip was an opportunity to use her Spanish skills from high school.
“I loved speaking with them in Spanish,” Barnes says. "I was talking to these little girls while their parents were getting their blood pressure checked. It was cute.”
The students also had an opportunity to train community health workers in obstetrics first aid and home birthing practices for beginners. They also completed 10 Spanish educational sessions about chronic illness and disease transmission.
The Impact of Traveling Abroad
Mancus says the experience gives students a sense of cultural humility.
“It’s being somewhere where you’re the cultural minority and having the humility to stay ‘I want to understand, I want to listen, I want to learn, I want to meet people,’” says Mancus. “It’s important to show that you care.”
Barnes says she jumped at the opportunity to travel abroad and hopes to do it again. She’s even considering taking Spanish as a minor.
“It was nice that we were making a huge difference,” Barnes says. "The community we went to was four hours from the city. They didn't have access to any good hospitals or doctors. It was shocking to hear how people won't be seen for months when they try to get a single appointment at a hospital."
Barnes says the UNH nursing program does an excellent job of giving students hands-on clinical experience, and the international experience adds to it by helping students better understand global health disparities and giving them a unique experience that will prepare them for their future careers.
"I can interact with patients with a lot more confidence now, especially because I interacted with patients who couldn't speak my direct language,” Barnes says. “That will definitely help me in clinical and in the real world.”
