Nursing with Open Hands
Abstract
"Alumna trains in midwifery in Guatemala. ... Whitney Martin enrolled in nursing school thinking she'd focus on gerontology. She worked at TigerPlace, an independent living community, her last year of school and formed close bonds with her patients. But when Martin read Women's Bodies, Women's Wisdom during her women and newborns class at the Sinclair School of Nursing, she was drawn to the subject. Martin, right, and two Guatemalan girls in Patanatic, Solola, Guatemala. Martin went on home visits for patients who were too ill or old to make it into the Manos Abiertas Clinic. 'It roused something in me,' Martin says. 'In the U.S., our system is so medicalized, but our infant mortality rate is 50th in the world. I realized I didn't want to learn on the medical model. I wanted to learn how people in less developed places do it.' So Martin, BSN '11, boarded a plane to Guatemala the day after she received notice that she passed the nursing boards. She spent three months interning at the Manos Abiertas Clinic, conducting prenatal checkups, assisting in six births and supporting the women in the community."
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