Student nurses join dengue fight
Student nurses join dengue fight
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Wearing her blue college jacket, nineteen-year-old Devi smiled
as she passed out her last calendar to a passenger of a minivan
passing by the Rasuna Said-Gatot Subroto intersection in South
Jakarta on Friday.
Approaching cars or climbing in and out of buses that stopped
at the red lights, Devi, a freshman at the Jayakarta Nursing
Academy in Pasar Rebo, East Jakarta, was eagerly trying to steal
a few seconds of passengers' time to explain the three steps to
prevent the spread of dengue fever.
"This is the first time I have had the chance to go out into
the field, and I'm really exited," said Devi, one of the 15
students from the academy taking part in the 30-minute campaign.
Confronted with ever worsening annual dengue outbreak, the
city administration has enlisted the services of hundreds of
nursing students from 40 medical and nursing schools in
the capital to contain the outbreak since November 2004.
Every Friday, the student volunteers go to subdistricts or
intersections to remind the public or hand out leaflets on the
dangers of dengue fever and how to contain it.
Windy, Devi's classmate, said the campaign provided the
students with the opportunity to contribute their medical
knowledge to the public, while learning and practicing how to
deal with people of different backgrounds and personalities.
"Why do we want to do this? Besides learning to interact with
other people, which we will need to do in our careers as nurses,
we're also mentally preparing ourselves for people's reactions
too, maybe even rejection, of our advice. And I totally agree
with the government effort. I think the disease can only be
overcome through a joint effort, like in Cuba," said Windy.
Cuba's success in eradicating dengue fever through the 30-
minute campaign program has inspired its application in Jakarta.
According to Devi and Windy, most Jakarta residents are still
unaware of the dangers of dengue, which is endemic in various
areas throughout the capital, and fail to take the appropriate
preventive actions.
"When we passed out the calendars, people were reluctant to
take them even though they were free, and didn't seem to have any
curiosity about how to deal with the disease," said Windy.
Among the problems the students encountered while passing out
the calendars was not getting the chance to explain the three
steps for preventing dengue, which are: cleaning the bak mandi
(bathroom water tub) once a week, covering water containers, and
burying unused items that could hold water. "Because the calendar
is free, people sometimes just take it and ignore us," Devi said.
According to Purwadi, a lecturer on community nursing at the
Jayakarta Nursing Academy, the students could be used more
effectively in raising public awareness by sending out at least
10 students to every community unit in the subdistricts worst
affected by dengue.
"We are now working with the head of the Cijantung subdistrict
in East Jakarta to establish such a program," he said.
"Sending out students door to door to inform and educate the
people about the three steps is not easy because we must avoid
cutting into their study time," said Purwadi.
"For that reason, have prepared a team of volunteers
consisting of 30 alumni of the academy, to assist at Pasar Rebo
hospital in East Jakarta in our program to treat dengue
patients," said Purwadi. (001)