Thirteen William Jewell students, alumni Kelcie Snyder and Professor Dr. Lori Wetmore traveled to Honduras over the 2019-2020 Christmas break to aid in the Village Partners mission trip. The first stop was in Ahaus, Honduras, where we all assisted in the healthcare clinic. This clinic was just one of two in the region of Gracias a Dios. The clinic was developed in 1946 and was employed by one doctor and one nurse at that time. Now, the health clinic in Ahaus is employed by two doctors, one charge nurse, and around eight other nurses. They see about four thousand patients a year. During the mission in Ahaus, we assisted with providing training sessions to go over procedures that the clinic felt they needed teachings on or areas that they wanted to improve their current techniques in. We touched on some procedures and techniques including CPR training with the manikins donated from the Jewell nursing department, ear irrigation and EKG monitoring with recognition of normal and abnormal readings.

Jewell students also dispersed throughout the clinic to shadow the employees to get insight on a different healthcare delivery system and practices that are implemented within their clinic. We were able to view the operation room, the intake of patients, the overall techniques of daily nursing tasks and troubles that they face every day, and infant feeding programs that assisted children in surrounding areas to avoid malnourishment. From Ahaus, we traveled to Boca del Toro, Honduras where the mission was to be a part of the community and experience everyday life in the villages of Honduras. Families within this village adopted each student and we were welcomed into their home every breakfast and dinner. This Village Partners mission trip allowed the group to be immersed in another culture and community to become more culturally diverse.