Program Locations: Veracruz, Mexico
Program Dates: TBD
Target Student Population: Program will accept 12 students. Students studying Nursing, Spanish for Health Professions, and Latin American & Latinx Studies will be given priority
Faculty / Staff Leader(s): Dr. Elena Casey and Dr. Lisa Schiller
Corresponding Courses: No winterim course is associated with this program. However, all students must have completed one of the following courses prior to the program:
- NRSG 428.311 (Practicum: Nursing Leadership 鈥 Rural Immersion Clinical)
- SPAN 420 (Spanish for Health
Professions) - LAS 324 (Latinx Health & Migration to the US)
Additional Attributes: R2, 30 hours of service-learning
Runs every fall and spring semester. Please contact Dr. Lisa Schiller in the College of Nursing for all of the details. Limited to Nursing Students.
More questions? Contact Jeff R. DeGrave, Ph.D. degravjr@uwec.edu or visit the Intercultural Immersion Website
National Student Exchange Program
There are nearly 180 schools currently in the NSE consortium, including schools in the United States, Canada, Puerto Rico, Guam and the Virgin Islands. Our students can study at one of these schools for a semester or an academic year, pay UW-Eau Claire tuition, and earn resident credits which count toward their graduation requirement.
Attend information sessions in the Fall Semester for application information.
Additional information: NSE - 糖心Vlog Campus Site |
NATIONAL STUDENT EXCHANGE 鈥 240 Schofield Hall 715-836-2003 nse@uwec.edu
Global Health Clinical and Volunteer Experiences
Learning about healthcare from other global perspectives is a very important part of your pre-health education, but before seeking clinical experiences abroad or engaging in global health volunteer opportunities, you should seriously consider some very important things. There are numerous situations where students on international trips are asked and expected to practice medicine (including veterinary medicine) or dentistry without proper education, training and supervision. You need to be aware of the real risk of some well-intentioned programs doing more harm than good. It is strongly advised that you explore your personal motivations for participating in a global health experience and research the organization that is offering the experience.
Work with the Health Careers Center and your ARCC Advisor early to create a plan that works for you and your health career goals. Consider locations with course work and experiences that might enhance your application to professional school.
Useful resources:
- Read the guidelines provided by the (American Association of Medical Colleges) and ADEA (American Dental Education Association) for providing patient care outside the US.
- Read (University of Kansas, Center for Service Learning)
- Read the information provided at (GAPS) and take the free online GAPS workshop (University of Minnesota, Pre-Health Student Resource Center).
- Research the organizations that offer international health experiences and carefully consider any 鈥渞ed flags鈥 like those listed below. (From )
- Organizations that see high numbers of patients in a very short time.
- Organizations that allow unlicensed or non-professional students to do professional activities such as triaging patients, taking histories and physicals, doing physical exams and dispensing medications (particularly when there is no redundancy with a licensed/trained health professional repeating all patient care activities done by the students).
- Opportunities that over-promise big impacts in a short time.
- Organizations that reduce the challenges of health disparities to simple causes and/or simple fixes.
- Organizations that are not transparent about the use of fees and/or are trying to profit off of volunteering goodwill.
- Organizations that focus narrowly on the benefit for volunteers (such as the benefits to an application or resume), rather than the benefit to the community served by the volunteers.
- Organizations that do not measure their impacts on communities or evaluate their work.
