THE Divine Word University’s medical students and three faculty doctors recently participated in a rural outreach program.
The program was a collaboration between the Madang Provincial Health Authority (PHA), which provided additional medicine and rapid tests; the Catholic Health Services (CHS), which supervised work done by Malala Health Center; and local church leaders, who helped organize patients and nutrition research participants.
Under the supervision of clinicians Professor Jerzy Kuzma and Dr Marcella Yeou, the fourth-year medical students examined and treated several patients with various illnesses.
Another group, including six staff from the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences and two students, progressed the staged nutrition action research within the community.
This included reporting on the mapping of nutrition status and behavior and discussing with the local community on effective and acceptable interventions to improve the nutrition status of children under five years of age and pregnant women.
The nutrition action research was sponsored by the Bread for the World organization. The initial astrometric study revealed a high level of mild malnutrition and stunting among children in Malala communities.
Thus, this intervention study is expected to have a positive impact on the nutrition status of two vulnerable groups: children under five years of age and pregnant mothers. A postgraduate student in the Master of Public Health program also had an opportunity to collect data for their Master thesis nutritional research.
Head of the Department of Medicine, Professor Dr Jerzy Kuzma, emphasized that healthcare outreach programs are critical in addressing healthcare disparities and improving the health outcomes of underserved rural communities.
He believes that such programs can help improve the overall health and well-being of the community. Professor Dr. Kuzma explained that the outreach program improves training in clinical and public health arenas by exposing medical students to hands-on patient experience and community health promotion projects in rural settings, showing them opportunities for future career pathways.
