Nursing capstones: More than just a clinical experience
As the end of the year rapidly approaches, the seniors of Viterbo are counting down the days and fulfilling their graduation requirements. One of the requirements is the senior capstone. For the nursing students, there is a 120 hour clinical requirement that must be completed within the last seven weeks of nursing school. Nursing students are also required to attend three seminars and the Cultural Diversity Symposium while journaling about their experiences. The purpose of these requirements is to prepare students for future career paths in the medical field.
In order to get a better understanding of the requirements, I spoke with senior Amanda Hubley about her trip to San Raymundo, Guatemala. I asked her several questions about how nursing students get their placements and the activities that they partake in during their capstone. The placement comes from a survey that students complete at the beginning of their senior year: “Typically, each student is placed separately, some in the La Crosse area and some outside of the area. Many students choose areas near their hometown so they can live at home during these seven weeks. You can think of it like an internship.”
Amanda explained she was interested in applying for the study abroad program since it counts for the capstone project. After completing the application, she let her professors know they did not have to find a local placement for her. Soon after, she was accepted to go to Guatemala for her seven-week capstone. They left mid-February for the rural, poor community and set up a clinic: “. . . we set up a clinic to provide patients with affordable health care through an organization called Refuge International. One half of the clinic was for patients to see providers and be prescribed medications and the other half was for performing surgery.”
Amanda went on to explain the benefits of this hands-on experience as a BSN student. The students were able to start IVs, assess patients, manage post-operative pain, and scrubbing in on surgeries to assist. Amanda also enjoyed getting to go to an area school to provide health education such as hand washing, nutrition, eye care, and first aid. Viterbo nursing students even had small gifts to give the children.
Of course, it wasn’t all work and no play. For the last two days of their trip, Amanda said they traveled to Antigua, Guatemala to go zip-lining, shopping, and hiking in the tourist city.
When asked about what she got out of her experience, Amanda replied, “I think getting to work and collaborate with so many different health professionals are super valuable experience for our future careers. We worked with CRNA students and their instructors, nurse practitioners, surgeons, translators, and many more who all made this an amazing experience.”
She also states she gained cultural awareness. She called it a “better understanding of ‘us and them’” and how we should focus on what we have in common to bring us together rather than what makes people different. An example of this is one of the surgeons that Amanda would talk to at breakfast. He spoke about the commonalities that all people share and would spend his days talking to the translators in order to get to know something about each and every one of them. She remembers most when he shared what he had learned to demonstrate that the people they were serving are not so different from them, and that they all deserve the best care that the students and surgeons could give.
Amanda explained there are some prejudices with doctors and surgeons amongst nurses, and that these people who they spent their time with proved the judgments wrong. Not only does the capstone prepare the nursing students for the medical careers, but it also works to educate themselves on individuals and morals.