This morning I awoke in our 24 bunk
room at 5:30 am to the hustle and bustle of nursing students putting on their
whites for the first day of clinical out in the rural communities of
Panama. After a filling breakfast
of sliced hotdogs with “special sauce” and fried dough squares we were off on
our wild ride through the winding Panamanian countryside. The drive was beautiful as we
overlooked the mountains and hanging clouds on what seemed like a desolate
rode. An hour and 40 minutes later
we arrived at the village clinic and were met with intriguing gazes from the
locals who came seeking health care.
After an introduction with the head nurse at the clinic we soon realized
the language gap was just a we bit larger than we expected.
Finally
we heard a language that we could understand as an English speaking Panamanian
doctor entered the room and gave us the grand tour. Within a matter of minutes there was a mouse running
across our feet, and if that is what they consider a mouse in this country I
would not want to experience a rat.
The doctor was very kind and welcoming explaining the forms he was
filling out and translating everything in the conversations between him and the
patients. I could not help to
think how much I could learn if the doctors in the states spent that much time
conversing with the nurses about their patients.
The most interesting part of the
day arose when the doctor explained a bit about the economics of the healthcare
system in the local village.
Influenced by politics, and the local votes, the villagers get paid $100
every time they show up to the clinic.
The members of the community get paid up to $300 a month, which allows
them to live off the government just for visiting the clinic! That seems like quite a bit of
motivation to seek out preventative healthcare measures, which is a primary
goal of the Ministry of Health in Panama. However, this lack of self-sufficiency in the system
causes huge issues, and according to the local doctors leads to the Panamanians
expectations of government handouts for life. The lack of supplies in the rural clinics seems to be just
the tip of the iceberg regarding the healthcare needs of the Panamanian
people. Looking forward to what
else I can learn, discover, and experience on this trip while trying not to get
carsick on the wild ride into the countryside.
-Chiara
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