by Natalia Kirychuk, Student Public Relations Writer
Quality health care is vital for any country, but in Honduras, there is a 1-to-3,000 ratio of professional nurses to Honduran citizens. Understanding this problem, Dr. Jeff Huston, associate professor of pharmacy practice at Cedarville University, will lead his 23rd trip to Honduras from May 7-17 with eight rising third-year professional pharmacy students.
The team will partner with the Institute of Holistic Transformational Education in Nursing (IETI) in Choluteca, Honduras. The IETI was founded in 2017 and is the first and only nursing high school in Honduras. IETI is a year-round school. Students attend full days and biblical integration is a key component of the curriculum.
— Jeff Huston
Huston’s team will teach IETI’s students the Stop the Bleed program. Stop the Bleed is a worldwide initiative teaching people how to control massive bleeding.
“Anyone in health care, education, manufacturing, agriculture or any place people could be injured are taught Stop the Bleed,” explained Huston. “It is such a great program, so we want to teach it to the nursing school in Honduras so that they can continue teaching it to the people in their community.”
Stop the Bleed focuses on how to properly control bleeding by using hands, dressings and tourniquets. The team will adjust certain aspects of the Stop the Bleed curriculum since Honduras doesn’t have an emergency hotline like 911.
Along with Stop the Bleed, the team will teach IETI students about medication calculations, blood pressure, blood glucose, fluoride treatments and IV preparation. The team will also conduct local health fair screenings for blood pressure and blood glucose.
This team is a part of twice yearly medical missions trips led by Huston to Honduras since 2006. Through the years, the goal of these trips has adapted and changed over the years to better serve the Honduran people.
“Our initial goal right after Hurricane Mitch was to mass treat as many people as possible,” described Huston. “But as Honduras’ economy and living conditions have been improving, we want to educate the people on so they can help themselves without outside assistance. Essentially, our goal is to put ourselves out of a job. In doing so, we see the impact of them taking ownership of their own health care through the nursing school and community health partners.”
Located in southwest Ohio, Cedarville University is an accredited, Christ-centered, Baptist institution with an enrollment of 4,193 undergraduate, graduate and online students in more than 150 areas of study. Founded in 1887, Cedarville is recognized nationally for its authentic Christian community, rigorous academic programs, including its doctor of pharmacy and pharmd/mba dual degree programs, strong graduation and retention rates, accredited professional and health science offerings and leading student satisfaction ratings. For more information about the University, visit www.cedarville.edu.