In Guatemala, Students Engage in Medical Mission

In late May, a group of students and faculty from the Wegmans School of Pharmacy at St. John Fisher University traveled to Guatemala to volunteer with Hope 4 Kids International.

The School has partnered with Hope 4 Kids since 2017, taking seven trips to Guatemala to engage in medical missions that serve families living in impoverished environments.

Megan Gearinger, a P4 student, took the opportunity to engage in a service-focused Advanced Pharmacy Practice Experience (APPE) rotation. She was joined by rising P2 students Cassidy Pearce, Katelyn Solar, Jailey Trevisani, and Karis Vega. Faculty member Dr. Amy Parkhill, associate professor, and Ashley Smith ’23 (Pharm.D.), who served as a PGY-2 ambulatory care resident at Rochester Regional Health/St. John Fisher University this past academic year, also traveled with the students.

The team helped run four pop-up medical clinics serving more than 400 patients in three different regions of Guatemala. They traveled to an inner city in the southern region, spent time in a rural farming community near the coast, and visited two traditional Mayan villages in the Lake Atitlan region, Santa Caterina and Jaibalito, which is only accessible by boat.

“It was interesting to see how the population and health care needs changed from place to place,” Gearinger said. “For example, in San Miguel, the rural nature of the community meant more parasitic infections than in other locations, so we gave medication to all patients to help prevent disease.”

At the medical clinics, the students gained experience counseling patients with infectious diseases and malnutrition and also provided education on cardiovascular disease and diabetes prevention.

While in Guatemala, the group had the opportunity to paint houses and work with the children in the villages, participated in cultural activities including touring Mayan ruins, and shared in a traditional Mayan diner.