Nursing students find hazards and help for teens

Eight University of Arizona nursing students took the pulse of teen life and health in Nogales for four weeks, made a diagnosis and offered a prescription.

Southeast Arizona Health Education Center (SEAHEC) hosted the students, who were one month away from graduation when they delivered their research results on July 14. They were participating in the Visionary Interprofessional Health Sciences Training in Arizona (VIHSTA) program.

The students told city representatives, community leaders, SEAHEC staff and teens what they discovered about life in Nogales.

• The No. 1 cause of death is cardiovascular disease and No. 2 is lung cancer. Nogales has a higher rate of infant mortality and overall death rate than the rest of Santa Cruz County and the state of Arizona.

These statistics came from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Arizona Department of Health Services, said Program Coordinator Lourdes Paez-Badii.

• Several organizations offer summer classes, activities and jobs, but not enough for all the teens who want to participate. Lack of public transportation makes it difficult for some youths to get to the locations.

• Nogales, Sonora is an attractive place for teens to party on weekends. Teens often cross the border for sporting events, movies or shows. The legal drinking age in Mexico is 18, but bars may serve youths even younger, said two of the nursing students.

• In a survey of 70 local teens, the nursing students found that 74 percent had Internet access at home, 79 percent had their own cell phone, and 48 percent got information from a newspaper, more likely online than from the printed edition. The teens surveyed worked in the WIA summer program and others participated in the Team Anonymous Program for youths on probation.

• Nogales youths enjoy the parks, but once it gets dark, some are not lighted. But one recreation center stays opens late.

Marcel Bachelier, director of Nogales Parks and Recreation, confirmed the recreation center stays open until 10 p.m. on weeknights, but closes at 5 p.m. on Saturday.

Several parks and playfields are lighted at night and the skate park is open until 10 p.m., Bachelier told the Nogales International.

• Currently there is no health education class offered in either middle school or high school in the Nogales Unified School District No. 1 and students receive only one day of sex education, said student Jennifer Rocha.

“We don’t have the health classes separate for now,” said Fernando Parra, principal of Nogales High School, in an interview.

Nutrition is included in the physical education curriculum and in some vocational courses, Parra said. “We do not have any curriculum guided toward sex education at this time.”

At Wade Carpenter Middle School, athletic director Pat Valenzuela teaches health as part of physical education classes for girls. But she doesn’t get into sex education “because of our culture and how parents feel about it,” she said.

January Hayes wrapped up the group’s findings.

“Adolescents in Nogales are at risk for engaging in unhealthy behaviors,” Hayes said.

She cited a lack of comprehensive health education, a fairly low level of educational attainment and difficulty in finding employment.

But if youths take advantage of community resources, they can increase healthy behaviors, Hayes said.

“We have enjoyed finding your strengths �“ and there are many,” she said.

Adam Colbert suggested a few ways to improve teen health:

• A media-based project to publicize health topics and list community activities and resources.

• A health-mentoring program to pair teens with college students or a peer-educator program.

• A way for adolescents to voice their concerns to leaders.

Colbert showed a brief film about PhotoVoice, a program that can give “people with little money, power or status a voice through photography,” he said.

Communities can obtain a $500 grant to get started and equip teens to take photos of problems in their neighborhoods, Colbert said. PhotoVoice has enabled residents to push for safe parks, healthier food in local grocery stores, and more places to walk and bicycle.

For more information, visit www.photovoice.org.

Students who belong to SEAHEC’s health career clubs have developed “digital stories,” another name for PhotoVoice, said Paez-Badii.

“There’s a whole movement in public health of people deciding what the problem is, what to do about it and taking action,” UA nursing instructor Cathy Michaels told the Nogales International.

During their stay, the nursing students toured a produce house, a camp for recently deported migrants and a hospital in Nogales, Sonora.

When they walked into the Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social hospital, “they spray everyone’s hands with sanitizer,” said Rachel Studdly.

Mexicans practice preventive health care and stress birth control, said Yanko Limon.

“In Mexico, you have the right to health care,” he said. “It’s written into the constitution. Here, we have people losing their houses if they get sick.”