Global Events

Date: 10/16/2022

I attended this event because I am a nursing student and I was interested in learning more about the experience of individuals who are intersex, as they are often discriminated against in the medical community because the medical community is focused on “fixing” genitalia to confirm to the societal expectation of either male or female. This event has influenced the way I develop the way I practice health care regarding the LGBTQ+ community.

Approximately 1 in every 2,000 babies are born intersex. Often, surgeries given to individuals who are intersex are not medically necessary (cosmetic) and it’s important for me as a nurse to be an advocate for individuals who are intersex and give the patient the power to decide if they want the procedure for themselves. In the presentation, I watched a video detailing stories of individuals who are intersex receiving a surgery that they did not medically need and did not ask for. A form of advocating for a patient is to provide education to both them and their families (especially if a patient is a child) that being intersex is normal and that no medical procedures are needed. 

Another important lesson I learned though this presentation is how to talk about puberty in a way which reduces the stigma surrounding given body parts or the identity of individuals who have those body parts. As a nurse, I will have patients who are transgender or intersex and these identities are ones which are overlooked in the standard discussion of puberty. When communicating with everyone (not just individuals who appear to belong in these communities) it’s important to engage people using their chosen name and pronouns,  mention body parts as their anatomical names, normalize different identities and how they experience puberty, and explain body changes in relation to having specific anatomical parts rather than in relation to gender identity. Additionally, a nurse who serves as a patient advocate, should educate patients who identify as transgender or intersex about the medical testing which is appropriate for the anatomy that they have and provide education which is inclusive for individuals in this community. For example, someone who is taking testosterone, but was born with a uterus should know that there is a chance that they can become pregnant if they engage in sexual intercourse and that they should schedule pap smear testing as they still have a cervix, so they are still as risk of developing cervical cancer.

Date: 10/21/2022

Resource Exploitation by in developing countries has serious effects on not only the environment of the developing country, but also around the world. Unfortunately, many companies take advantage of people in developing countries by working them long hours in unsafe working conditions while paying dramatically lower wages for their labor.

Production is high in many industries due to the creation of products that need to completely be replaced when broken rather than creating products where you can replace broken parts. An example of this is technological products such as laptops and phones or cheap quality fast fashion clothing that will breakdown more easily and need to be replaced. This high production may improve the economy but has a negative influence on our environment which should be a paramount concern. After all, we cannot have a working economy if we exploit our environment to the point where we can’t produce goods anymore. Although it seems counterintuitive to the economy to consider the environment, this practice would allow economies to succeed in the long term. Some encouraged responsible consumption methods are to buy products until they must be replaced, buying goods that are reusable rather than disposable goods when possible, repair items if possible, reuse items, not participating in trendy fashions that will be out of date quickly, recycling, and buying goods second-hand when possible to prevent unnecessary consumption and demand of a newly produced item.

Date: 2/7/2023

This event discussed the impact of stress on the body. During this speaking event, I learned about how stress can have both short-term and long-term effects on the body. Some of the effects of chronic stress include muscle tension, muscle pain, shortness of breath, high blood pressure, and an increased heart rate along with  negative physiological effects.  Because of the effects that this stress can have on the body, it is essential to learn how to control your stress. Some healthy methods used to reduce stress include medication, breath work, massage therapy, sound healing, and Reiki.

I wanted to attend this event because it was a presentation on the biological effects of stress on the body. This relates to my experience both as a current nursing student, and as a future healthcare professional. Stress is a problem in the field of healthcare because nurses and other healthcare personnel are subject to stressful situations such as the healthcare worker shortage. Specifically, the nation-wide nursing shortage causes there to be more demand for nursing care than what the current number of nurses in the workforce can supply. This problem alone is a big stressor in the field of nursing also causes nurses and other healthcare professionals to leave the healthcare field due to burnout which only worsens the healthcare worker shortage. It is important to encourage nurses to pursue healthy stress management practices in order to reduce nursing burnout and to improve the quality of care which a nurse is able to provide to a patient.

I believe that this event did a great job discussing the biological effects of stress and is helpful for me in learning effective methods to manage stress both as a nursing student and when I am present in the workforce. It is also part of a registered nurse’s scope of practice to be able to educate my patients about the biological effects of stress and methods that they can use to reduce their stress. The majority of the time, stress reduction practices can be implemented alongside medical care to improve patient outcomes.

Date: 2/21/2023

In this presentation, I learned how Angela Vela who has worked in both school and medical settings uses her experiences from her indigenous background in her practice as a social worker. Angela also mentions how colonialism impacts the way that healthcare professionals practice today and encourages us to reflect on how these historical events influence the guidelines which we use in practice. 

A setback in evidence-based practice within healthcare which come to mind for me include care for female patients due to most research historically catering to men as research subjects. This is significant because women do not always show the same symptoms of conditions within a clinical setting as men. Additionally, there is a lack of research on the benefits of non-western practices such as yoga, meditation, and herbal practices because these practices have been historically looked down upon by processionals practicing Western-Medicine.

It is also important to acknowledge how the health care field has been affected by white supremacy throughout history. As a future nurse, it is important to recognize this because this history has ripple effects including the health disparities which exist today. Although the exploration of this concept is occurring currently, this element of holistic wellness that has been ignored throughout history.

In my nursing program, I have learned guidelines in class on how to provide culturally competent care for patients, but I have observed that in clinical practice that implementing culturally competent care is easier said than done. For example, some important culturally competent interventions include minimizing the language barrier by using medically certified translators, asking patients if they use herbal medicines (and working to care plan which allows the use of these medicines), and allowing patients access to the individuals that aligns with their belief system (such as curanderos).

In clinical practice, culturally competent care is more complicated when medical translators are not readily available in hospital settings, translating apps do not always work, and many herbal remedies have contraindications with western medications. An example of a health disparity I observed firsthand during my clinical rounds was when I observed some nurses at the nursing station discussing a patient who was Hispanic and was in the hospital for the last four days after giving birth to her first child. This patient primarily spoke Spanish, and the nurses who were caring for this patient had just learned that this patent had not understood anything that the nurses or the specialists who had met with her had told her throughout her stay because she was spoken to in English.

Lastly, it is important to explore how past medical traumas, and harm to land have impacted people of color throughout history such as the lead poisoning which occurred due to contamination of waterways in Flint (a poor city in Michigan that has a large POC population), and the consequences of the Tuskegee Syphilis study which occurred from 1932 to 1972 where black men with Syphilis were not told that they had syphilis and were not given treatment for their syphilis (despite the fact that there was a medically proven treatment for Syphilis as early as 1947).

Sources:

 https://eji.org/news/history-racial-injustice-tuskegee-syphilis-experiment/#:~:text=The%20money%20funded%20medical%20care,also%20suffered%20under%20the%20stigma.

Date: 8/1/2023

I was interested in attending this event because I am someone who loves to be a traveler rather than a tourist and I want to explore the world in a way which is economically, environmentally, and socially responsible. Growing up, I traveled to many national parks in the United States, and I want to do more international travel after I graduate from USF. As I pursue traveling post-graduation, I want to learn how to be sustainable while traveling internationally. When traveling, I want to be able to have purposeful interactions with the locals and the environment. During this presentation, I learned about aspects of the tourism industry which are unsustainable for the environment, tourist sites, and for the culture of a city. The concept of sustainable tourism is more important than ever as we are in an age of globalization and technology which lowers the costs and barriers to tourism. 

I feel that the topic of sustainable tourism is a fun way to contribute to many of the United Nation’s Sustainable Development goals because allows a traveler to immerse themselves in the culture of the country that they want to experience. During this workshop, I learned about methods which I can use to be a more sustainable tourist such as using Google to find flights with lower CO2 emissions and booking experiences directly with local businesses in order to better support local economies.Lastly, this topic is important because when I travel, I find more enjoyment in navigating the day-to-day live of an individual in the location I am visiting rather than visiting a large tourist destination. 

Date: 11/14/2023

In the session on disinformation and misinformation in healthcare that I attended; the speaker dived into the differentiation between the two terms. Misinformation is the dissemination of inaccurate information, often unintentional, while disinformation involves the intentional spread of false information with malicious motives. The session highlighted the alarming ways in which articles can contribute to misinformation, a particularly concerning issue in healthcare where patients may struggle to discern between reliable and misleading sources. The example of cigarette and tanning companies deliberately spreading health misinformation underscored the gravity of the problem. The talk emphasized the relevance of seeking out accurate health-related misinformation and stressing the importance of relying on expert knowledge to alleviate the cognitive load of fact-checking. Resources like MedlinePlus and Healthfinder.gov were recommended for empowering individuals, even those without extensive health backgrounds, to fact-check health information. The discussion also touched on the nuanced nature of fact-checking, acknowledging that some sources may contain a mix of accurate and deceptive information. Lastly, this session explored the roots of bias and discrimination, citing historical incidents like the Tuskegee syphilis study and the misconception surrounding AIDS. The mention of the CHANGES study which was published in 2015 added a contemporary perspective to the broader issue of misinformation in the health community. Overall, the session left me with a heightened awareness of the need to critically evaluate health information and the potential consequences of misinformation in healthcare decision-making.

Date: 1/18/2024

I was attracted to attend the Medical Spanish Workshop, because I wanted to learn medical Spanish and to incorporate some medical Spanish terminology into my nursing assessments for my Spanish-speaking patients. By utilizing medical Spanish, a nurse can enhance communication to the Spanish-speaking community which allows for more effective communication and understanding of care for the Spanish speaking community. Additionally, this gesture helps to increase patients’ comfort and improves healthcare equity for patients within this population.

During this event, I learned how to perform a basic nursing assessment in Spanish along with common phrases which a patient may use to describe the locations and characteristics of their pain. After reviewing the vocabulary covered during this event, I took turns performing a health assessment in Spanish with the other attendees of this event. An “aha moment” of this event for me is the profound impact a nurse can have on patients by simply trying to communicate with their patients utilizing Medical Spanish. In this workshop, I learned that I do not need to be fluent in Spanish or be a perfect Spanish-speaker to engage a connection with my primarily Spanish-Speaking patients. Rather, it is the understanding of basic Spanish phrases and the effort towards direct patient communication instead of simple reliance on a medical interpreter which engages a Spanish speaking patient to take greater ownership in expressing their concerns and participating in their plan of care.

Date: 2/8/2024

The role of a doula encompasses a support system which extends beyond physical medical assistance. Doulas offer emotional, informational, and physical aid to individuals and their families throughout the stages of pregnancy, childbirth, and the immediate postpartum period. Although the presence of a doula has been supported by research to promote improved patient outcomes, doula services are not often covered by insurance, meaning that families must cover the cost of a doula out of pocket with costs starting between $400 - $1200 at the lower end. In the face of such disparities, it is evident that black patients often bear the burden of advocating for their own healthcare needs more assertively than their white counterparts.

Doulas play a significant and vital role in patient advocacy for African American patients. This advocacy becomes particularly pertinent for African American patients who face systemic racism within healthcare systems. Consequently, black women are disproportionately affected by maternal mortality, with a mortality rate 2.2 times higher than that of white women. Additionally, in a 2016 study, 40% of first- and second-year medical students believe that black patients have a higher pain tolerance than white patients, which leads to disparities in the prescriptions for pain management. To address these disparities effectively, advocacy efforts must extend beyond individual patient interactions. Lawmakers play a crucial role in promoting equal access to maternal healthcare for African American women by supporting policies that prioritize equitable care. Before they can serve as a patient advocate, all members of the healthcare team must look inward and assess their own biases. By fostering a healthcare system rooted in empathy, understanding, and equity, we can strive towards mitigating the disparities that persist in maternal health outcomes.