Learning while serving

Practicing nursing in a busy hospital or a doctor’s office is often a challenge. But traveling from resource-abundant urban and suburban areas to rural communities to help people who receive insufficient care can be like entering a whole new world.

Faculty and students from Emory University’s Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing and other schools travel to Moultrie every summer as part of the Farm Worker Family Health Program. The intensive, two-week program provides health care to migrant and seasonal farm workers and their families, who have little to no access to adequate health care.

The purpose of the program is to give students an immersion learning experience and bring health care to people who need it.

“Rural America is underserved, and it’s a huge ethical problem,” said Judith Wold, Ph.D., RN, director of the program.

It’s unfortunate that many people who contribute to the U.S. agricultural industry don’t receive satisfactory health care, Wold added. She cited the language barrier and a lack of transportation as two hurdles that stand in the way of bridging the gap.

Emory’s nursing school works with a community partner, Ellenton Clinic in Colquitt County, to provide physical examinations and health screenings. Volunteers set up clinic facilities where farm workers and their families live and work.

Several partnering schools are involved in the Farm Worker Family Health Program. Students from Georgia State University (psychology and physical therapy), the University of Georgia (pharmacy), and Clayton State University, Darton College and West Georgia Technical College (all dental hygiene) helped care for the workers.

“This program is so successful because it’s interdisciplinary. Students representing different colleges and universities come together to practice their skills at the same time and learn from one another,” said Aviva Rubin, RN, a student in Emory University’s MSN program.

For Rubin, participating in the program is more than just volunteering; it’s about learning while she serves.

“Service learning fits really nicely into a nursing curriculum because it combines our hunger to advance our clinical experience while providing care for a vulnerable population,” Rubin said.

This is Rubin’s second year in the program. In 2009, she was an undergraduate nursing student. This summer, the newly graduated nurse was the graduate teaching assistant for the Moultrie project. She plans to return next summer as a student nurse practitioner.

Students benefit from the program in several ways. They earn clinical and course credit, they’re exposed to various cultures and they learn to adapt to real-world situations.

“A lot of students have never worked in rural areas before and it’s different. There’s the Hispanic, rural and agricultural cultures — all in one place,” Wold said.

Students who plan to work abroad during their health care careers get a taste of what that’s like in Moultrie. They work in a low-resource setting and learn to think and communicate with patients in a way they haven’t done before.

Laura Page Layne, RN, MSN, MPH, has been involved in the program since 2003, when she was a nursing student at Emory.

“Volunteering is about the moments where you are fully present with a patient,” said Layne, director of health services at Good Samaritan Health Center in Atlanta.

Layne uses her vacation time to work with the program. As a volunteer, Layne says she gets extra time to spend with patients.