Student nurse sees extremes
Going from February in Erie to February in India exposed Leslie Hazlett to more extremes than just the contrasting temperatures of 7 degrees and 95.
Hazlett, a 2011 graduate of Butler High School and a senior nursing major at Gannon University in Erie, experienced different foods, customs and landscapes when she traveled to the country with five other nursing students and two faculty members.
The trip, from Feb. 26 to March 8, was made through the university's nursing department.
“We drove from Erie to Buffalo, N.Y. We flew from Buffalo to JFK Airport. We flew from JFK to Dubai and from Dubai to Chennai, India,” she said. It was a 14-hour flight from JFK to Dubai, she said.
The American group arrived in Chennai in the rural southern part of the Indian subcontinent. The Americans then had a six-hour van drive to the city of Dindigul.
Hazlett's group visited two cities, Madura and Dindigul. The health clinic where the group worked was outside Dindigul.
“Our purpose for going was to look at the health care system and do some teaching with the nursing students in India. We toured a lot of health care facilities,” she said.
“Another goal of ours was to be immersed in the culture and see culture and health from the perspectives of the students and the people they care for,” she said.
“We got three credits for this field study trip,” Hazlett said. “When we returned we were to write a paper about our experiences, as well as give a few presentations on it.”
The health care clinic work included blood pressure readings and glucose testing.
“They have a real problem with diabetes in India. This is because they eat a diet that includes a lot of white rice,” she said.
She said “the carbohydrates in the rice break down to sugars and can contribute to causing diabetes. This is a change being attributed to new chemical processes used in growing rice faster.”
“We had brought blood glucose testing supplies with us to India to use in our village clinic, as well as to teach the Sacred Heart College students how to use them,” she said.
The Sacred Heart College of Nursing is run by Catholic nuns and is where the Americans stayed.
“It was so interesting to work with nursing students from another school and country to see how we are alike and differ. We actually found that between us and the nurses/nursing students in India, we are more alike than different.”
However, she found the health care clinics the Gannon group toured unlike clinics at home.
“They were not as sterile and sanitary as we are used to in the U.S.,” Hazlett recalled. “They sterilize and reuse needles there instead of disposing of them after one use, and they don't have the luxury of wearing gloves for everything.”
But the health care system itself in India is pretty comprehensive.
“They do provide for everyone, so you don't have to have insurance. They have different levels, obviously. The wealthier people can afford private health care as opposed to the public health care provided to everyone by the government.”“When we finally arrived after almost 48 hours of travel, the nuns and children at the orphanage all crowded around us to greet us and wrapped us in these beautiful silk shawls. They also put a bindi (red dot) on our forehead and gave us beautiful flowers,” she said.Living conditions were also different at the convent where the students stayed.“We were in a guest house, which was a dorm room basically,” she said. “There was no hot water, no shower and no bath tub.“We used a bucket to dump over ourselves, which was different for us but we got used to it.”“The electricity went out a lot also.”And the Americans had to share their quarters with the abundant Indian insect population.“There was this 5-inch-long centipede that crawled under our bedroom door one night. That was probably not one of my favorite parts of the trip,” Hazlett said. “It was like a small snake.”“The sisters took us to many temples, churches and shrines, so we saw many religious things,” said Hazlett. “We were in a very Catholic area as compared to the rest of the country. Catholicism only represents a very small percentage of India.”“The dress was very traditional. All the women wore saris. The men wore dhotis, which is like a tied up piece of cloth that is worn instead of wearing pants. No one had any Western clothing other than us,” she said. The nuns at the nursing school, for instance, wore pink saris, she said.“I guess one thing that was very surprising about the college of nursing was one of its main goals was to raise the standards of women in India,” she said.“Because of the caste system, women were considered inferior,” she said.
That attitude lingers even today in India, Hazlett found.“Anytime we traveled, we had to have a man with us. We weren't allowed to go to the cities by ourselves. It was definitely a shock because women are very independent in the United States,” said Hazlett.Another difference in the Indian nursing school, she said, was “that although we were similar in the way that we were both going for our baccalaureate degrees, their nurses were also trained to be midwives and deliver babies at the bachelor's degree level.”“That's something very different from what you would see in the United States, to deliver babies or become a midwife, nurses requires much further schooling” she said.The climate and landscape were different as well.“It was probably between 85 to 90 every day, very dry. The landscape was dry and dusty. There was low vegetation,” Hazlett said.“The population is very dense compared to cities here in the United States. It was crowded but not like the bigger cities because we were in a rural area,” she said.“I was shocked by how much garbage there was, there appeared to be an absence of public sanitation and garbage collection, as well as animals crawling through the garbage looking for food which was just a sad sight to see,” Hazlett said.“The people were very friendly and welcoming. I never felt so welcomed anywhere I've traveled,” said Hazlett, who's been to Europe and the Caribbean.“The food was very different for me,” she said. “I had never eaten Indian food before going there, but it was still interesting to taste new cuisines. We usually had curry and vegetables for breakfast, lunch and dinner.”“One night I had battered, deep-fried cauliflower and fried chicken,” she said.“We actually drank unpasteurized milk which made me very nervous, but since it was steamed and added to coffee, it was fine,” she said.“They had huge plates of pomegranates. And they had these little red bananas that were one of our favorite things,” she said.“They had spicy soup for every meal even for breakfast which I loved,” she added.The flight back was even more exhausting, she said.Would she go back?“That's a question I have really thought about,” said Hazlett. “I loved the experience and I would not trade it for anything. I'm so glad I could experience another culture so far from home.”“I definitely realize now how fortunate I am to have so many privileges and comforts at home here in this country,” she said.“I'm not really sure,” she concluded.“Overall the trip was very humbling for me, when doing community health in the villages, it made me realize how happy they are with what little they have. Most people in the community live in grass huts with very little furniture and no running water, but yet they are so grateful for what they have, and so grateful that we were there.”
India, slightly more than one third the size of the United States, is in southern Asia, bordering the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal, between Burma and Pakistan.Its population of 1.25 billion is divided into Hindi 41 percent, Bengali 8.1 percent, Telugu 7.2 percent, Marathi 7 percent, Tamil 5.9 percent, Urdu 5 percent, Gujarati 4.5 percent, Kannada 3.7 percent, Malayalam 3.2 percent, Oriya 3.2 percent, Punjabi 2.8 percent, Assamese 1.3 percent, Maithili 1.2 percent and other 5.9 percent.English enjoys the status of subsidiary official language but is the most important language for national, political, and commercial communication. Hindi is the most widely spoken language and primary tongue of 41 percent of the people; there are 14 other official languages.India has several religions: Hindu 79.8 percent, Muslim 14.2 percent, Christian 2.3 percent, Sikh 1.7 percent.India is a federal republic made up of 29 states and seven union territories. The chief of state is President Pranab Mukherjee, who was elected July 22, 2012. The head of government is Prime Minister Narendra Modi. A Union Council of Ministers is appointed by the president on the recommendation of the prime minister.The president is elected by an electoral college consisting of elected members of both houses of Parliament and the legislatures of the states for a five-year term without term limits. The prime minister is chosen by parliamentary members of the majority party following legislative elections.India is developing into an open-market economy. Economic liberalization measures, including industrial deregulation, privatization of state-owned enterprises, and reduced controls on foreign trade and investment, began in the early 1990s and served to accelerate the country's growth, which averaged under 7 percent per year from 1997 to 2011. India's diverse economy encompasses traditional village farming, modern agriculture, handicrafts, a range of industries and services.Since China and India launched a security and foreign policy dialogue in 2005, there have been discussions related to the two nations' dispute over most of their rugged, militarized boundary, regional nuclear proliferation and Indian claims that China transferred missiles to Pakistan. Kashmir remains the site of the world's largest and most militarized territorial dispute with portions under the administration of China, India and Pakistan.
