Clinic Days

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Clinic Days 

An overview of our busy week and the nursing activity done

Being in my senior year of nursing school at Concordia, I have experienced most of my clinicals in a hospital setting. Being able to experience the clinical setting here in Guatemala is simply amazing. The clinic, named Puesto de Salud Llano de Animas, allowed us to see and examine many different medical problems that we probably would not experience in the United States. We had the chance to go out into the community and administer vaccines to children and women who could not make it to the clinic. While there, we got the chance to see a child who was affected by the Zika virus as a baby. She was diagosed with Zika at birth, which means the mother transmitted the virus to her while she was a fetus. The child now suffers from severe mental and physical disabilities due to the complications of the virus. She gave a cry, the sound of which I will never forget. Also in the community, we had the chance to see Chikungunya, which is also tramsitted by mosquitos. It is a debilitating illness that causes fever, headache, and swelling & severe pain in the joints.
Other than visiting the community, we also ran clinics inside the actual clinic building. With Dr. Zegrean leading us through assessment, including obtaining past medical history, physical assessments and treatment options, we were able to provide adequate health care to a massive amount of patients who sought medical attention. While there, we mostly saw respiratory infections (like strep throat) and GI problems related to improper hygiene habits. We had the opportunity to see children with scabies, a skin disease in which little mites burrow under the skin and cause bumps to appear. What makes scabies different from chicken pox is that the bumps will be more severe in folds of the skin- like wrists or armpits- and will usually be more linear or have a pattern to them. The problem with scabies is that it is easily transmitted to people who come in contact with the infected person for a long period of time. Therefore, if one person in a family gets scabies, it will most likely spread to other family members, as well.
We were also able to experience a patient who suffered from gangrene. Gangrene is dead tissue caused by an infection or lack of blood flow. The dead tissue and lack of blood flow cause the skin to turn black or very dark purple. As a result, the infected area needs to be removed. In this case, due to a lack of blood flow going to the person's feet, the infected area was the toe. The patient reported to us that she suffered a small cut on her toe and it eventually led to gangrene and now her toe needs to be amputated. Unfortunately, there is not much we can do for her besides pain and infection control. The problem for her is that the amputation costs more money than she can afford. Sadly, that means this lady will probably not get this infected toe removed and it could cause problems down the road.
These are just a small fraction of the medical issues presented to us; however I wanted to give you a taste of our week here in Guatemala. We are very sad that our clinical days are over as we have learned so much here in Guatemala. I can say for all of us that we have learned more from this clinical experience in Guatemala, than all our other clinical experiences combined! We are truly blessed to be able to use our talents and skills here to help treat others and even though it seems like such a small gesture to us, there are many patients that received care that might not have, if we were not here. For that reason, I am very grateful and humble. I hope that other nursing students from Concordia get the opportunity to come here and spread more love in this wonderful village in Guatemala.
- Desi Reyes, Student Nurse

Student nurse, Beza, sitting with a child who was very interested in watching a video.

An infected toe nail, being surgically removed by the wonderful Dr. Elry himself! Student nurse, Alex, sits and observes while holding the patient's hands to provide comfort. 

Awaiting the results of a pregnancy test! As you can tell, we were all super anxious!


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