Studying (and helping) abroad

Dr. William Bina, interim dean at Mercer University’s School of Medicine, had meticulously planned this spring’s Mercer on Mission program to China.

Mercer students were scheduled to combine classroom study with a three-week service/learning trip to a foreign country. Bina and four other faculty members planned to take 15 students in the school’s medicine, nursing, pharmacy, physician’s assistant and social work programs to visit health centers in three Chinese cities.

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Photos by COLLINS YATES / Special

Dr. William Bina interviews an unidentified Chinese patient as nursing student Samantha Harris (center) looks on. In May, five faculty members and 15 students traveled to China as part of the Mercer on Mission program.

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‘This trip was inspiring. As a nurse, I don’t want to have just one mind-set. I want to keep an open mind about the world and [about] life. This encouraged me to go out and see other places.’ - Deanna Johnson, Nursing student

What he hadn’t planned on was a devastating earthquake that hit the city of Wenchuan and killed about 80,000 people on May 12 — days before the group was to leave for China.

“We ended up having to cancel all but one day of our planned visits, but we identified two hospitals, an orphanage and another school where we could visit, as well as the Beijing Center for Disease Control,” Bina said.

He knew that his group would be seeing a nation and a health care system in crisis. Because they weren’t trained in disaster relief and didn’t speak the language, Bina also knew that they wouldn’t be allowed to help.

“We wanted to go anyway, and we didn’t want to just sit around. We wanted to do something,” Bina said.

Given the enormous scale of the disaster, Bina was impressed by the Chinese government’s emergency response. The relief effort was an around-the-clock job, and he found the government and army’s work to be organized, for the most part.

On May 19, the group from Mercer shared in the three minutes of silence observed by the Chinese people for those who were affected by the earthquake. Flags flew at half-staff, and traffic and everything else stopped.

“It was so moving,” said Samantha Harris, a junior nursing student from Jasper. “You realized that we are all human beings, and we all experience suffering. The borders came down.”

“At first, people were surprised by [our concerned] reactions and participatory efforts. I guess they had the stereotypical view of rich Americans,” Bina said. “Once they understood that we wanted to help, doors opened. Our guide and bus driver took us to places that were not on the itinerary.”

One stop was at a Wal-Mart store in Chongqing. The students and faculty members had collected money to buy toiletries for earthquake survivors. What would have been a 45-minute trip in the United States was a four-hour adventure, said Deanna Johnson, a senior nursing student from Snellville.

“We had three translators, but it was still confusing and hard to know what we were buying and [what] the prices [were],” Johnson said.

They bought soap, shampoo, toothpaste and washcloths, as well as crayons, pencils, note pads and coloring books for children.

Making connections

“We took the bags to earthquake victims in the hospital, and the people were endearing,” Johnson said. “They had nothing, and we have so much, yet they seemed so happy and grateful we had come. They would grab our hands and smile. It was an awesome experience just to hold their hands.”

“Students were very touched by seeing that they could connect with people they had never met and couldn’t converse with,” Bina added.

Johnson was impressed by the cleanliness at the Beijing CDC, but the students were appalled that there were no hand-washing sinks in the hospitals they visited. In the children’s hospital, there was no air-conditioning, and there were four to six patients in each room.

“At home, nurses are the doctors’ eyes and ears and do so much for patients. In China, nurses don’t have near the responsibility that we do,” Johnson said.

The group did hands-on nursing by holding clinics for children at the New Day Creations orphanage in Beijing and for adults at an English as a second language school.

“I got to work by Dr. Bina’s side as he did assessments and to give them their shots,” Harris said.

The Mercer group also took medical histories, performed physicals and let students practice speaking English.

Forging career paths

When she heard about the Mercer on Mission program, Harris was excited.

“I like the idea of service learning. I’m interested in the prevention and wellness-promotion aspects of public health, and I was always fascinated by China,” she said.

She was interested in two subjects of study: global health, and health systems and policies.

“I had some anxiety after hearing news of the earthquake, and [I] wondered what I was getting into, but I was also excited to go,” Harris said. “I think I fully realized I was in China when we were in Chongqing, which has about 33 million people. I had never been in such a densely populated area in my life. It was like a different planet.

“By the end of the trip, I could have stayed, because I felt so connected to the people.”

The trip reinforced Harris’ interest in public health, and she’s thinking about becoming a family nurse practitioner.

Every student turned in a journal at the end of the program.

“One of the intentions of this program is to change the lives of students and help them affirm their vocations,” Bina said. “We read about some powerful changes. One student had grown tired with her studies and was excited about learning again.”

Johnson said the cultural experience opened her eyes.

“People and cultures are very different,” she said. “This trip was inspiring. As a nurse, I don’t want to have just one mind-set. I want to keep an open mind about the world and [about] life. This encouraged me to go out and see other places.”

“In the end, we didn’t change China, but China changed us,” Bina said.