Each summer, Emory students and faculty make a three-hour trek to Moultrie, Georgia, to provide care to migrant workers and their families. Additional students and faculty come in from other Atlanta and Georgia colleges and universities. Starting in 1996 with eight students, three faculty, and one physician, the Farmworker Family Health Program has evolved into a service-learning project that includes more than 200 students, faculty members, and community volunteers.
As the Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing's participation in the program goes back two decades, many of the Emory participants are students in the nursing program. The nursing volunteers examine children by day and set up mobile clinics to treat adult farm workers in the evening. Often the care received in the program may be the only health care the workers and their families members receive the entire year. The most common ailments faced by farm workers are muscle strains, back problems, urinary tract infections, dental problems, skin rashes and eye infections. Emory student nurses also conduct health screenings for migrant children.
During this year's program, the Nursing Now blog nursing students logged their experiences online, complete with pictures, in a series of posts, including: