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.

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Just Another Clinic Day

November and December aren't very busy months. We stay busy when we're not with patients by practicing lab work, cleaning up, organizing the pharmacy, studying, and attending/teaching classes.
Ken, an American med student who's spending some time traveling, is currently running the clinic's lab. Today he taught me about testing for hemoglobnin and hematocrit, and we practiced taking blood and testing our own blood. It was really cool to see the process through, until the power went out and we had to stop.


I taught a class about pediatric examination techniques. I bought some dolls to practice on, which was good for some laughs, but was also a nice way to try out some exam techniques.
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