Introduction

This blog will follow me through my travels and experiences working at a clinic in Quetzaltenango (Xela), Guatemala. The clinic sees primarily indigenous (Mayan) patients in a rural mountain community. More than half of the patients are children, and the clinic is expanding its population even more to include more adults. Much of my struggles actually come from the rather universal theme of being a new healthcare provider, in my case, a new nurse practitioner. I'll also try to post plenty of travel stories to keep people entertained, and share some more cheerful stories. I apologize if there's an overkill of clinic stories. Sometimes it helps to tell the stories, even if only for my own sake.

Thursday, September 30, 2010

Mobile Clinics (at schools)

One of the unique and special things about the Primeros Pasos clinic, where I am volunteering, is that they do “mobile clinics” to local schools. Today we treated 4 classrooms of children. Each child was weighed, (ideally) came prepared with a stool sample for parasite testing, and was given an approximately 10-minute consult with a doctor, nurse practitioner, or medical student, and a short health lesson. The child was sent home with a piece of paper describing his health, and how to take any medications we gave him. We treated every child for intestinal worms, and gave them soap and a toothbrush to take home. About half of the children I saw had GI complaints, and were given an anti-parasitic medication. We also treated the URIs and other infections that we encountered. It was a totally new model of school health for me, and was fascinating. The mobile clinic process will continue, and we will go back on Monday to see the rest of the kids. It was incredible to see how many children were able to receive education and treatment in a short period of time, and children who would otherwise likely not have been treated (at least not quickly).

These are the pictures from the school. The location is very rural, and the ride up to the school in the rain was a little rough in the re-vamped American school bus. The ride home was even more eventful...!



These last two pictures are of the assessment and educational part of the encounters. Cody B is the other recipient of the Frist Global Health Leaders fellowship that is allowing me to be here. He and I are shown here working with some of the kids.

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