As a 2009 Frist Global Health Leader, Vanderbilt nursing student Danielle Dittrich traveled to Guatemala to work at the Primeros Pasos pediatric clinic.
Danielle Dittrich is a Registered Nurse, and in August 2009 she graduated as a Women’s Health Nurse Practitioner from Vanderbilt University School of Nursing. As an undergraduate at Vanderbilt University’s Peabody College, she majored in Human and Organizational Development (Health and Human Services), and she participated in the accelerated bridge program, which combines undergraduate and graduate school into five years. As a student, she worked with Latina patients at the United Neighborhood Health Services Waverly-Belmont Family Health Center in Nashville. She was also a mentor in the Metro Public Health Department’s Latina Birthing Project. She remains passionate about improving the health of women in underserved communities, specifically Latina women.
In the fall 2009, she traveled to a rural village in the western highlands of Guatemala to set up a women’s health program as a part of the Primeros Pasospediatric clinic. While in Guatemala, she focused on prenatal care and cervical cancer screening. In the future, she hopes to continue to be a part of medical missions in developing countries, and she plans to serve the Latina community in her specialty area of high-risk obstetrics. Eventually, she hopes to teach as a professor of nursing in community health.
Read about Danielle’s experiences as a 2009 Frist Global Health Leader
- 12 October 2009: Nurse in Pediatric Clinic
- 21 October 2009: Nurse Launches Women’s Clinic
- 17 October 2009: Primeros Pasos Update
- 01 December 2009: Fertility Necklaces and Family Planning: Guatemala
- 17 December 2009: The Obstacles of Giving Birth in a Guatemalan Hospital
- 11 January 2009: Saying Goodbye to Primeros Pasos