Nursing students volunteer in different ways in Costa Rica

The Center for Global Nursing continued to make an impact across the globe with a trip to Costa Rica in summer 2023. Nursing students totaling 13 from Houston and Dallas made the trip along three faculty members.

In Costa Rica, students completed 32 clinical hours with over 100 patients. Work included registration, checking vital signs, O2 saturation, blood glucose, height and weight. The students helped migrants and those without homes or works at free clinics, prison staff, children at an orphanage, and elderly residents at a nursing home.

They also volunteered to prepare and serve food, assist at an IUD clinic and participated in group therapy meetings.

There were other opportunities to learn more about Costa Rica through expert guides at a medicinal plant nursery, an organic coffee plantation, a national park and at a labor and deliver hospital. 

Students also heard a presentation from an international researcher on the Costa Rican Blue Zone as well as a local doctor who covered the Costa Rican healthcare system. For some added flavor, students went through culinary training at the Culinary College of Costa Rica.

Page last updated 5:46 PM, September 5, 2023