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.

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Local Medics

Being English-Speaking Nurse Practitioners, Cody and I were asked to teach a wilderness medicine class to a group of trekking/hiking guides. Not only was I intrigued by the opportunity, but I was also a little surprised, that the request came with about 5 hours of notice, on an already busy day. But there aren't too many English-speaking docs/NPs in the area to teach the course, and people often think that you know everything when you have some sort of medical training. So I set my own fears aside, and after a few minutes of internet research, we were ready to go. We got to the place, and found a group of foreigners who very kindly offered us fresh coffee and water served in recycled jars. It turns out, they had pretty flexible expectations, and let us teach pretty much whatever we thought was necessary. The course went well, and we adapted the content on-the-spot. We had a good time, and were invited to go back in a couple of weeks. I'm looking forward to it, and next time we'll be able to prepare beforehand!
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