During an FSUCares trip to Mexico in March, College of Medicine students witnessed the kind of compassion in health care often obscured by bureaucracy in the United States. “The nurses, or promotores, that I worked with walk every day throughout the low income neighborhoods providing medical care such as immunizations and well-child checks,’’ said first-year student Christina McCall. “They carry their medical supplies on their backs and when they come to a home that requires their attention, but no one is there, they will come back to the house two or three times before they give up, just to make sure that the people get the care they need.’’

McCall was part of a group of students and faculty to work along the Texas-Mexico border during spring break. Other groups worked in Filipinas and Portobelo, Panama. Every year, FSUCares members make the trip both to provide health care and counseling to people who otherwise would not have access to care, and for the experience the clinical learning environment offers in return.

For the second consecutive year, the Escambia County Medical Society helped underwrite the cost of the trip with a $1,000 donation.

While FSUCares is active locally through health clinics in Tallahassee and in medical outreach efforts in Immokalee, the spring break trips are a tradition begun with the first class to enroll at the College of Medicine in 2001. The outreach programs are to focus on the unique public health factors that influence different regions of the world in order to expose and prepare future doctors for the ever-changing face of medicine and society.

McCall's experience in Mexico reminded her why she chose to go to medical school.

"The medical care is free and the nurses work for very little salary paid by the government,'' she said. "It is this type of compassion that made me want to go into the field of medicine.''

The Texas-Mexico group spent four days working in a clinic in Rio Bravo, Mexico, with some students venturing out into rural villages to provide care to people without insurance and with no transportation.

"My lasting impression is one of admiration,'' McCall said. "The people that I worked with work for such little pay and in such poor conditions that I was surprised they last so long at their jobs.  When we asked them why they enjoy doing what they do, they said that it is the rewarding feeling they get from helping these people that need them so much that keeps them coming back everyday.'' More about FSUCares