#CHBSChats with Nayeli Juarez

Video By: Aimee George
Story By: Sara Banton
Creative Services Staff

From the beginning of her college career, Nayeli Juarez has taken full advantage of opportunities related to her career goals and interests. After being offered a Centennial Scholarship that covered her costs for all four years, choosing JMU was an easy decision. Since arriving on campus, she has been accepted to the nursing program, become a scholar in a grant-funded rural healthcare program and received an additional scholarship to travel to Tanzania to study healthcare abroad this summer.

Juarez is currently a scholar in the Undergraduate Primary Care and Rural Education Project (UPCARE). UPCARE aims to support and improve healthcare accessibility at Valley Health Page Memorial Hospital in Page County, Virginia, a federally designated medically underserved area. Students work with nurse preceptors and other healthcare professionals, learning about chronic disease management, preventative care, hospital transition management and health coaching.

“I had the opportunity to go to homes and be under the supervision of a home health nurse and really assess the patient using the limited resources and time we had,” Juarez said. “Participants in UPCARE have an advantage in our nursing education. Our skills have been refined and we can pick up on things that other students at hospitals don’t get the opportunity to do.”

A first semester course on infectious diseases influenced her decision to choose the nursing major, a career that provides more opportunities for hands-on interaction with patients while still working with infectious diseases. When Juarez learned about the International Health: A Tanzanian Perspective (NSG 490) study abroad that focuses on health screening programs, project planning and clinics, as well as helping others with preventative care or managing diseases, she jumped at the chance.

“I’m going to a different country to see what infectious diseases can do to a human,” Juarez said. “In Africa, compared to the U.S., deaths are more related to infectious diseases, whereas in the U.S., deaths are more related to comorbidity, which includes diabetes and heart disease.”

Juarez applied for and was granted the Gilman Scholarship, a need-based scholarship specifically for studying abroad. “This will allow me to study abroad because it really has covered a great cost of my program fee and the visa costs associated with it,” she said. “The scholarship has lessened the stress of making up the money of studying abroad and allowing me to have this great experience.”

With her upcoming trip to Tanzania, her future career as a nurse and her time as an UPCARE scholar, Juarez will have many opportunities to disseminate the knowledge she has gained, to help improve the health and well-being of others.

“As a nursing student, it’s a great satisfaction to work with and educate patients,” Juarez said. “I find education to be so important for anyone who wants to make themselves better.”