School of Nursing: Connections

PSNP Graduate Student Takes Health Care
to the Amazon

Graduate student Cheryle Palmer with Peruvian children in a remote Amazon village.

Cheryle Palmer, a Psychosocial Nurse Practitioner graduate student, has been involved in two trips to rural villages in Peru as part of the Rainforest Health Project, a non-profit international relief organization providing humanitarian medical assistance to people in that nation’s remote Amazon jungle. Palmer helped to set up clinics in seven villages where she saw an average of 100 people per village. Palmer describes a typical "exam area" as "several school desks pushed together in the middle of a one-room school house with no privacy."

Despite this, Palmer notes, "we carried all our supplies with us including pharmaceuticals and the range of available treatment was very impressive." Palmer says that the first trip she made was "life changing" and was a major motivating force in her decision to go to graduate school.

"I would encourage anyone who can to experience health care in a developing country. You will truly come home with a different perspective on health and cross-cultural care."

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