Mongolia No rth
Ko re a
Christina Chiu Wai Yi
Getty
Opinion
I
N
A
a re Ko
H
h ut So
C
Henan Xinyang
Ne
pa
l
h
lades Bang
India
H I M A L A Y A S
Bhutan Taiwan Burma
Baitang children (left) engage in activities involving the health handbook, while (right) the map shows the location of Henan province and the city of Xinyang in the east of China
A school for health
Among the children in a village in China, health assessment was like a game, says nursing student Tommy Hung THE BAITANG SCHOOL is in an underprivileged village, north east of Xinyang city in Henan province, mainland China. Children living in the village face health risks because of the lack of resources, such as sustainable clean water for drinking, cooking, washing and household cleaning. The school of nursing at Hong Kong Polytechnic University raised funds for a community project to provide health assessments to kindergarten and primary school pupils there and to build a well for the village. The healthcare promotion team from the university consisted of staff and nursing students in their second and third years of studies. I was one of the students who participated in the five-day project. In Baitang, the children were mainly cared for by their grandparents, as most of the parents had moved to the bigger cities for work. Their physical health was at risk from the polluted water, the underdeveloped facilities for living and limited healthcare services. Villagers have to spend more than an hour in traffic to travel the 37km from Baitang to nearby Xinyang city to access the hospital. NURSING CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE
The lack of transport means that the children have to walk for at least 30 minutes to school every day, with their legs dusty or their toes exposed through their broken shoes. The school is the only landmark in the village, and is where the children learn, play and live. Therefore the school was a strategically essential location for health education and promotion. Screening sessions We spent our first two days providing health screening, including the ‘tumbling E chart’ vision assessment, binocular vision examination, weight and height measurement for body mass index assessment, and surveys of dietary habits and physical activity levels. We also held talks with the children on personal hygiene, healthy eating and exercising. Some were found to be myopic, but were not wearing lenses. Some were suspected to have other eye problems, such as amblyopia and strabismus. We urged the school principal to help those students, and we tried to make referrals to the medical services in Xinyang. Most of the children had never received such a thorough physical assessment
or health education in class. The health assessment was one of the funniest games they had ever played. As for me, it made me realise the importance of regular health assessment and education for children. We had fun and played games, sang, danced, held art workshops and other activities during our time there. On the first day, I noticed that many of the children had long, dirty fingernails. They hugged us with muddy hands but were not embarrassed and we brought huge packs of water, not only for drinking but also for handwashing. I found that correcting people’s misconceptions about hand hygiene was as important as teaching handwashing technique. Usually, the residents would save buckets of water from the dripping water pipes in the school playground. A little girl in my group said: ‘I am sorry to use up that much water to wash my hands.’ However, during our visit, the principal allowed us to turn on the pipes without restriction. Who were the happiest? The children, of course. On the last day, we bid farewell to the whole school. The pupils queued up quietly in their neat and tidy uniforms. They burst out crying, pulled at our clothes and asked us not to leave so soon. I was holding back my own tears while saying my goodbyes. I encouraged them to study hard and to stay clean and healthy. Tommy Hung is a PhD nursing student at the School of Nursing, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong May 2013 | Volume 26 | Number 4 15
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Ko re a
Christina Chiu Wai Yi
Getty
Opinion
I
N
A
a re Ko
H
h ut So
C
Henan Xinyang
Ne
pa
l
h
lades Bang
India
H I M A L A Y A S
Bhutan Taiwan Burma
Baitang children (left) engage in activities involving the health handbook, while (right) the map shows the location of Henan province and the city of Xinyang in the east of China
A school for health
Among the children in a village in China, health assessment was like a game, says nursing student Tommy Hung THE BAITANG SCHOOL is in an underprivileged village, north east of Xinyang city in Henan province, mainland China. Children living in the village face health risks because of the lack of resources, such as sustainable clean water for drinking, cooking, washing and household cleaning. The school of nursing at Hong Kong Polytechnic University raised funds for a community project to provide health assessments to kindergarten and primary school pupils there and to build a well for the village. The healthcare promotion team from the university consisted of staff and nursing students in their second and third years of studies. I was one of the students who participated in the five-day project. In Baitang, the children were mainly cared for by their grandparents, as most of the parents had moved to the bigger cities for work. Their physical health was at risk from the polluted water, the underdeveloped facilities for living and limited healthcare services. Villagers have to spend more than an hour in traffic to travel the 37km from Baitang to nearby Xinyang city to access the hospital. NURSING CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE
The lack of transport means that the children have to walk for at least 30 minutes to school every day, with their legs dusty or their toes exposed through their broken shoes. The school is the only landmark in the village, and is where the children learn, play and live. Therefore the school was a strategically essential location for health education and promotion. Screening sessions We spent our first two days providing health screening, including the ‘tumbling E chart’ vision assessment, binocular vision examination, weight and height measurement for body mass index assessment, and surveys of dietary habits and physical activity levels. We also held talks with the children on personal hygiene, healthy eating and exercising. Some were found to be myopic, but were not wearing lenses. Some were suspected to have other eye problems, such as amblyopia and strabismus. We urged the school principal to help those students, and we tried to make referrals to the medical services in Xinyang. Most of the children had never received such a thorough physical assessment
or health education in class. The health assessment was one of the funniest games they had ever played. As for me, it made me realise the importance of regular health assessment and education for children. We had fun and played games, sang, danced, held art workshops and other activities during our time there. On the first day, I noticed that many of the children had long, dirty fingernails. They hugged us with muddy hands but were not embarrassed and we brought huge packs of water, not only for drinking but also for handwashing. I found that correcting people’s misconceptions about hand hygiene was as important as teaching handwashing technique. Usually, the residents would save buckets of water from the dripping water pipes in the school playground. A little girl in my group said: ‘I am sorry to use up that much water to wash my hands.’ However, during our visit, the principal allowed us to turn on the pipes without restriction. Who were the happiest? The children, of course. On the last day, we bid farewell to the whole school. The pupils queued up quietly in their neat and tidy uniforms. They burst out crying, pulled at our clothes and asked us not to leave so soon. I was holding back my own tears while saying my goodbyes. I encouraged them to study hard and to stay clean and healthy. Tommy Hung is a PhD nursing student at the School of Nursing, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong May 2013 | Volume 26 | Number 4 15
Downloaded from RCNi.com by ${individualUser.displayName} on Oct 15, 2015. For personal use only. No other uses without permission. Copyright © 2015 RCNi Ltd. All rights reserved.
