BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KERO) — Twenty-one Cal State Bakersfield nursing students have returned from a trip to indigenous villages in Argentina, where they provided hands-on medical care, public health education, and resources to underserved communities.
The mission marked the first time the CSUB Global Nursing Outreach program traveled to Argentina. Since launching in 2017, the program has sent 237 students to Peru, Mexico, Costa Rica, and Zambia.
Daisy Cabacungan, one of the 21 students on the trip, described the experience as transformative.
"It's eye-opening, it's humbling. It's it's truly, truly a once-in-a lifetime experience to be able to experience, to have the honor of experiencing a different healthcare system and a different culture," Cabacungan said.
Students traveled deep into several villages in the Tartagal region to work alongside local nursing students and community members.
"So we got to work with nursing students. We got to work with the community. And, you know, their community was very grateful that we were there, very welcoming to us., very kind," Cabacungan said.
The team arrived prepared to address the specific health challenges they encountered, including lice treatment in children, parasite awareness, and diabetic foot care.
Krystal Ball, the Global Outreach Director at CSUB, said the students also helped organize a major educational conference at a local nursing school in Tartagal.
"We participated in assisting one of the nursing schools in Tartagal is where we were, and so we had over 200 nursing students come for the conference that we set up, which was just amazing. We did hands on workshops, we did lectures," Ball said.
The group also donated more than 150 books and 16 mannequins to strengthen training resources at the nursing school.
"We had a lot of children we saw with lice. So we had supplies ready for that. We did training on watching for parasites. And so different things that we do, diabetics, what they're watching for, what their feet care So once we leave, we know we've impacted the community there," Ball said.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
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