Medical Clinic Day One
Today we went to a remote area in Nicaragua and provided basic medical care for about 250 people. We saw a lot of kids and some of their parents. It was eye opening caring for these patients- many of them needed simple things like ibuprofen or tylenol. It was different working with a translator, however we were able to help a lot of people so that was good.
One of the cultural differences was a lot of animals in the clinic. There were 2 dogs that were play fighting in the school where we were when we arrived. We were informed that they may be someone's dogs or they may be stray dogs that have just wondered in. Throughout the day, there were a number of dogs that wondered into the clinic- some were stray and some came with their owners- none of them needed medical care though! This parrot came with this boy's family into the clinic!
While privacy and HIPPA laws are huge in the US, Nicaragua does not have the same policy. We saw everyone in the same room and groups of families would come in together. At times, it seemed overwhelming to have so many patients walk up to you at once, but they were friendly and were patient.
Here is where we triaged and registered patients. Our paperwork is much more straight forward than it is in the US. Registration is a lot easier because no one here has insurance since they have socialized medicine. Therefore, they can see a doctor for free, but usually have to pay for medications. The free healthcare is not always very good, so these people have very limited access to good healthcare. It is possible to pay for better healthcare, but you have to be able to afford it.
The pharmacy stayed busy all day. We did not bring a pharmacist so we were in charge of dispensing medications. We had limited resources, so when we ordered meds we had to consider what the pharmacy had to work with. As the day went on, they ran out of supplies and the three students working in pharmacy had to find different meds to treat patients with an even more limited selection. Because most patients came in family groups, they went to the pharmacy in large groups which could be overwhelming at times. On the way back to the hotel, we saw some of our patients leaving the clinic- they were waiting for the bus or driving a cart pulled by an ox. It was heart breaking to see how far these people came for basic medical care. It was also sad to hear about the care that they had from the public healthcare system. Many patients could not afford medications, so they would come and ask if we had medications to treat something they had been diagnosed with months ago. Often it had resolved.
After a long day of work, we returned to the hotel, had some downtime before having an excellent dinner. After dinner, we celebrated our first day by going out for ice cream in a "Moto Taxi" which are like little open air taxi carts. Today was a great first day and we are all looking forward to another productive day tomorrow somewhere else!
I'm sorry that there are not more pictures but our internet is a little spotty- please check out the Hope Without Borders Facebook page to see more pictures!
Blessings from Nicaragua,
Morgan and David
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