Visting the Guatemalan hospital
By definition, a "hospital" is a health care institution providing patient treatment with specialized medical and nursing staff and medical equipment. When thinking about a hospital, I sort of pictured a set off of the show Gray's Anatomy. The white linen, white walls, blue scrubs, monitors beeping every which way with gloves and antiseptic gel everywhere you look. Here in Guatemala, I assumed that it would look similar but be outdated compared to what I was used to. The problem with assuming anything, is that you never know the real truth. The 150 year old Guatemalan hospital was nothing that as nursing students in the United States, we would probably ever imagine. Walking in, the entrance was gated and locked to the outside community. After entry, patients were sitting outside the room to be seen, waiting their turn again. Within the hospital there were various rooms based on the specialty that was needed to be seen. It ranged from men's and women's health to OB to trauma and even OR/surgeries. The wards offered were pretty similar to the ones in the United States. What was probably most interesting was that there was typically only one doctor PER specialty and usually one nurse per specialty as well. In Guatemala, there are nursing assistants who do various duties such as adminstering medications, paperwork, assisting with activities of daily living and pretty much could do most of what a registered nurse could do in the US. Within the hospital there was an intensive care unit, or ICU, for both pediatrics and adults. For BOTH of the wards, there were only 10 ventilators available. From my ICU experiance in the US, most patients I have encountered have been on the ventilator or intubated. Not just in the ICU, but overall resources were pretty limited. We were told that most of the medical supplies at the hospital were donated by nursing programs that did not need them anymore. I can also say that from my tour of the entire hospital, I did not see one hand sanitizer stand; and not many nurses working with patients used gloves. However, I can say that the hospital made the best of the worst. Having limited resources, the hospital does an amazing job to create a healthcare environment to meet the needs of the community. It was definitely not what we were expecting, but we were very proud to be able to experience it first-hand. It is amazing to see the differences between hospital norms in the United States and here in Guatemala. -- Desi
Visiting the Neonatal Ward
Our Tour of the Amatitlan Hospital
Popular Posts
An Uncommon Experience
An Uncommon Experience We have completed five days of clinical practicum at the clinic in the village Llano de Animas, and these have been the most amazing days in my life. The learning experiences acquired were unexpectedly diverse. We provided care to patients with pediatric illnesses, adult illnesses, post-operative care (i.e., suture removal), OB-GYN, immunizations and tropical diseases. However, this would not have been possible without the gentle guidance of the nurses at the clinic and of Dr. Elry. I tend to think that there are many knowledgeable individuals in the world, but few are actually able to impart their knowledge to others. Dr. Elry is one of those one-of-a-kind people, whom you wish you could spend more time learning from. He has been a great teacher to me and the students. One of the toughest jobs was performing an assessment of a child's throat. Despite how often we would show the child how to stick the tongue out, the child still would not do it and he
Renewing our minds
Shortly after sipping on the best coffee in the world (i.e. Guatemalan coffee), we read a devotional about allowing God to renew our minds. And so it was. On this first day of clinical practicum, our minds were exposed to multiple and unique learning opportunities in a place least expected. We worked alongside the healthcare staff at a public health clinic in a village up the mountain from Lake Amatitlan. The seven nursing students were placed in different areas of this small clinic: the consultation room (which was staffed by a pediatrician), the immunization & family planning area and the medication dispensary area. It was amazing to see the level of organization of the clinic staff members given the few resources that they had. We struggled the most with learning how to read a mercury thermometer – turned it left and right, up and down until we saw that silver lining. We also learned that blood pressure would only be checked for patients 14-years of age and older as the clinic
"Looking through new eyes"
An experience unlike any other! It is commonly said that mission trips change the way you view your life upon return to the United States. It can sometimes be hard to imagine how others actually live, when the most accurate description exposed to us is via movies. The opportunity to experience it first hand was very overwhelming. We Concordia students took to chance to embrace how blessed we are after visiting different houses of people who live throughout the Lake Amatitlan community. The most breath-taking visit was with a woman, Dona Lupe, who was receiving a new vented stove for her home. It was given by voluteers from a Lutheran church in California. Remember, the word "home" is not what you would imagine it to be. Sheets of metal put together with a metal roof held down by cinder blocks is not my idea of a "home." However, for 18 years, this was the woman's home. She was currently prepping all her food on a giant rock slab that went about waist-hig
Comments
Post a Comment