October 20, 2014

Professor Don Downing and UW health sciences students spend a month in India

For a month in August/September of 2014, 22 UW students participated in the UW Exploration Seminar – India developed and guided by UW School of Nursing professor, Dr. Ardith Doorenbos, with assistance by UW Graduate Nursing Student, Claire Richards, and UW School of Pharmacy, Clinical Professor, Don Downing.  The program is designed to provide Interprofessional Educational experiences for UW Students in several health sciences schools and undergraduate students looking at healthcare services in low-resource settings.

Faculty and students engaged in clinical services at Christian Medical College Hospital (CMCH) in Vellore and in surrounding villages. Much of the discussion centered on improving the awareness and early management of chronic, non-contagious diseases in order to effectively prevent kidney failure and metabolic syndrome. Similarly, they engaged with the colleges of nursing, medicine, dentistry and pharmacy on the Sri Ramachandra University (SRU) medical campus near Chennai, India. This campus contains two teaching hospitals; one of which is fee-for-service and one a free hospital.  Two weeks at CMC and SRU provided everyone with new perspectives on disease prevention and treatment where resources and primary care providers are in scarce supply.