Student Nursing Service Trip Reflection

A few days ago I had a very naive understanding of what the word privilege meant. I
learned that it’s something more than just possessing immense material wealth. It’s
about opportunity; having the ability to go places and do things that others couldn’t
dream of doing just because of that wealth.

Privilege is, simply put, having the ability and means to travel to a foreign country for
service. The concept of a medical mission, to be able to donate time and money to
benefit those less fortunate, is inconceivable to the patients I treated this past week. My
experience, made possible only because of my privilege as a citizen of the first world,
was just a short glimpse into their reality. I left clinic each day returning to clean water
and a warm bed; they did not.

After my time in the Dominican Republic, I see now that some people in this world have such
privilege; most others do not.

The patients I cared for and the professionals I worked alongside have made such a
profound impact on my life and the way in which I will practice. Despite witnessing such
tremendous poverty firsthand, I was still able to find fleeting moments of beauty
scattered throughout the despair. The hundreds of smiling faces and laughing children
have truly renewed my faith in humanity during this time of fear, division, and
uncertainty.

I don’t consider myself a particularly religious person, but in terms of Catholic social
teaching, the Jesuits hit the nail right on the head. We must live in solidarity with the
poor. It’s the duty and moral obligation of the fortunate to care for the unfortunate.
Mankind must be seen as a collective; by raising the desperate out of poverty, we
strengthen humanity as a whole.

There is still much work left to be done.