This bridge-experience provided an opportunity for students to travel to Santa Ana, Honduras to assist in several projects that aided in improving the health and lives of the Hondurans. While in Honduras, the students had the opportunity to be the "hands and feet of Jesus" by providing physical and spiritual care while also sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ. Their work was in cooperation with TORCH Missions and Clinica de Esperanza (Clinic of my Hope).
Nursing students from Freed-Hardeman spent their 2022 Spring Break in Honduras immersed into the Honduran culture, exploring how to identify, initiate, and sustain medicine and housing to enhance the quality of life in a poverty-stricken, third world country. Students were involved in a variety of projects that promoted a holistic approach to healthcare, setting up remote clinics in outlying villages, building a house, assembling and distributing food bags, and educating on the importance of clean water while providing water filtration systems. They were also presented with opportunities to work in local hospitals, the school for the deaf, and the school for the blind.
The mission of the FHU nursing department is "to provide graduates with a foundation of Christian values on which nursing knowledge, skills, and attitudes are learned for the purpose of providing holistic care to individuals, groups, and communities in need and for succeeding in the dynamic and challenging discipline of professional nursing." Traveling to Honduras allowed students the opportunity to provide holistic care to the Honduran community. Under the supervision of FHU's instructors, Linda Hodges and Dr. Sarah Pierce students put into practice skills they had learned in the classroom to assess the physical and cognitive growth and development in children.
While in Honduras, students saw firsthand the poor health care systems and had the opportunity to engage in service learning while also gaining valuable experience and on-the-job training by providing basic medical care, housing, water, and food to Honduran citizens. Students used critical thinking skills while treating patients without adequate medical resources. They also saw firsthand how medication or absence of disease is only part of overall health. People also need food, clean water, and housing to truly maintain a healthy life. Students were exposed to many diseases that are also seen in the US including scabies, intestinal worms, malnutrition [starvation and dehydration], hypertension, diabetes, burns, fungal infections, otitis media [ear infections], urinary tract infections, and sexually transmitted infections.
While there, the students were exposed to extreme poverty and had the opportunity to provide basic needs to the Honduras citizens. A major focus of TORCH Missions is to build houses for families who are homeless. During the trip, FHU students and faculty were connected with a family who was homeless and in one day were able to build them a safe place for them to call home.