News
April 2011
Nursing Students' Research Chosen for "Posters in the Rotunda 2011"
It's all about getting a look at Wisconsin's future through the lens of student research.
Maichou Lor (left) More than one hundred students selected from across the UW System campuses filled the state's Capitol Rotunda on April 6, 2011, to take part in the annual "Posters in the Rotunda: A Celebration of Undergraduate Student Research." Nursing students Maichou Lor and Janel Draxler were among eleven students chosen from the UW–Madison campus to share their research.
Maichou Lor, a student enrolled in the School of Nursing's Early Entry PhD Option, presented "Understanding Hmong Women's Beliefs, Feelings, and Norms about Screening for Breast and Cervical Cancer." She focused on why Hmong women seek—or choose not to seek—breast or cervical cancer screening.
"As a member of the Hmong community, I have witnessed fear and death in our families from untreated cancers," says Lor. "I have also heard complaints about health care services that failed to meet our communities' needs, creating distrust of health care. I wanted to get a better understanding of what Hmong women thought and felt about one aspect of health care."
Lor found that Hmong women's feelings of embarrassment, fear of unfamiliar tests, concerns about procedures being painful, and norms about modesty and deference to husbands' opinions obstructed Hmong women's use of breast and cervical cancer screenings. Their unfamiliarity with Western health care practices and lack of access to good interpreters also created barriers to such screening.
Janel Draxler (center)I hope that policy makers would support funding for basic preventive care and screening for all citizens," she says, "especially because those who lack financial resources for these services also lack experience in navigating the Western health care system."
Draxler, a first-year nursing student, presented "Latino Lay Health Advisors: A Mixed Methods Study on Their Role as Health Promotion Agents." It focused on lay health advisors (LHAs) who, because of their indigenous ties to the community or population of interest, can communicate what needs to be done among that population to better address health issues. In Draxler's project, LHAs promoted breast and cervical cancer screening among low-acculturated Latinas in Wisconsin.
"I feel that it's an honor to be chosen for the Rotunda symposium," says Draxler, "because it gives us the opportunity to share what we've learned about LHAs and the effectiveness of their approaches in breaking down health barriers in underserved communities."
"I hope attendees learn," adds Lor, "that there is a very active, bright, and energetic student population conducting research at the University of Wisconsin–Madison."