The award winning movie Still Alice, for which Julianne Moore won a 2015 Oscar for Best Supporting Actress, has won the publics’ hearts for its moving portrayal of a female professor’s struggles due to early-onset dementia. Here at the MGH Institute, we recently experienced a riveting evening hearing Greg O’Brien, an award-winning journalist and author who is documenting his struggles with the same neurocognitive disorder in his book: On Pluto: Inside the Mind of Alzheimer’s . It was part of the theme “Dignity With Dementia” that our first-year students are focusing on throughout the 2014-...

Greetings from India! This past week, we were lucky enough to accompany the fourth year BSc nursing students (equivalent to our BSN) to their community “posting” (placement) in a small village outside of Manipal. The Manipal College of Nursing (MCON) has three “adopted” villages that both second and fourth year BSc nursing students rotate through for their 7 week postings. In these villages, they assess and care for a variety of patients and diagnoses. We accompanied the students for three days and were able to meet and assess many of the members of the community. Their diagnoses ranged from...

Bylakuppe One of the great things about our trip to India is learning about different religions. We have been so lucky to visit many temples during our stay in Manipal. From visiting these temples we are able to learn a little about each religion and the history behind the temples we visit. Karkala We were able to take a day trip to Karkala where we went to the 1000 Pillars Temple and the famous statue of Gommateshwara—both are associated with Jainism. Jainism is an Indian religion that promotes extreme nonviolence towards all living beings. Those who practice the Jain religion follow three...

Frequent questions I've received from family, friends, and colleagues are: Where are you and what is it like? Where I am is fairly easy to answer; I am in the town of Manipal in the Udupi district of the Indian state of Karnataka. Manipal could be described as a college town dominated by Manipal University and as a suburb of the nearby city of Udupi. Manipal’s population is approximately 34,000. What it’s like here is a much harder question to answer and I won’t be able to fully answer it here. Instead I’d like to write a bit about the infrastructure of the area to help provide some context...

On Thursday, January 15, 2015, the Ann W. Caldwell President's Lecture featured Greg O'Brien, a patient with early-onset Alzheimer's disease and his team of family and clinicians. After describing their perspective on caring for someone with dementia, the panel answered questions from the audience of second-year graduate students. The video captures the poignant, often funny, and sometimes sorrowful conversation. Because time did not allow the moderator to pose all the student questions, I have included them here in hopes of continuing the discussion. Questions for Greg : Symptoms What was...

My first clinical assignment during our month long stay in Manipal, India was at Kasturba Hospital. Referred to as "postings" by the College of Nursing, these short visits to floors such as the ICUs and Causalities (equivalent to our Emergency Departments) provided us with much insight to the differences between healthcare here in India and the United States. For myself, I had no idea what the hospital conditions would be like or what type of patients we would see. It was necessary to acknowledge our own privilege before analyzing the healthcare setting. Studying in Boston, we had the...

Hello from India. I am in my final semester of the direct entry NP program, adult/geriatric acute care track. I worked as a registered dietitian specializing in nutrition support before starting school at MGH IHP. I am also a lover of food. We have had the chance to try a variety of new and exciting foods, have seen some of what local people eat and what their nutrition problems are, visited a community nutrition program for children and observed nutrition support in the hospital. When we first arrived to India, we were not always sure what we were eating but we have learned a lot. The above...

Hinduism is the most common religion in India, with more than 85% of the population being Hindu. As students visiting Manipal University, we immediately noticed how Hinduism plays a large part in the every day life of the people in Manipal, Udupi. Hinduism has no single founder, scripture or common set of teachings. They do, however, worship a number of deities. Hindus believe in being reborn, which is governed by Karma, and we have noticed most villagers are very honest and respectful. One of our first days here we visited Sri Krishna temple, which is a very famous temple in this region of...

Third year NP students from the Institute arrived in India to embark on an experience of a lifetime. They hit the ground running with a packed schedule of visits to village clinics, child care and malnutrition programs, and hospital wards. While the trip over was long and tiring it seems to be well worth the effort! In addition to their clinical activities, each student is focusing on one topic that will be used as a basis for their Scholarly Project - a requirement for graduation. Their topics are framed by the UN Millennium Development Goals and encompass the pressing issues of global...

Our last day in the Dominican Republic began with a now familiar routine. Everyone met in the dining hall for breakfast at 7 am and then prepared for the day. The medical team checked the contents of their bins, adding more vitamins or relabeling ziploc bags. The surgical team went over their schedule for the day and wrote down what supplies they would need. Erika Fernandez takes a photo of a mother and her sons who came for a consult. I joined the nursing students on the yellow school bus for the ride to Soco, the site of our morning clinic. Unlike the bateyes we had visited Monday through...