Meeting Needs

Our second weekend brought us to Boquete, Panama! A beautiful mountain city with much to explore and do. Boquete is more developed than San Felix and the communities we have been working with. There were also other tourists! A lovely couple from Paris, France took this picture of Brittany and I. We spent the morning exploring the town. Turns out that bartering is still going strong there too! We stole some great deals on souvenirs for family and friends. The lovely artisans of Toucan Tile were hard at work within their shop-so many beautiful tiles! While in Boquete we also went zip-lining! The first time I have ever gone! It was a blast, as well as breathtaking. You feel a little bit like you are flying too. 

Artisans at work.

The zip-lining crew.

As we headed back to the communities for our final week of clinical, we had the excitement of sutures, pap smears, labor and delivery, injections, injections, and more injections. At Buenos Aries we had a patient come in with a thorn lodged in a joint of her finger. Our doctor had to make an incision, and Chiara had the privilege of suturing it shut!

Chiara finishing up her sutures.

The baby!

In Panama, the nurses deliver babies, not doctors! It is required that they deliver a certain number of babies before they practice. This is quite different from the USA. The picture above shows Kaliope, an UNACHI student, with the baby she delivered. We had the privilege of performing a newborn assessment and learning about labor and delivery from our instructor Jessica Gordon. The community health nurse needs to be equipped to deliver babies out in the communities-very different from home! Culturally the delivery was different as well-no one was in the delivery room with the mother, and the baby is not given directly to the mother. Once the baby is given to the mother though, they remain together in the same bed post-partem. Such an interesting experience, and quite different from the birthing experience at home. They also closely examine the placenta in Panama to determine if there is anything out of the ordinary, a practice that is not done in the USA. We finished up our elementary school teachings with 5th and 6th graders and taught nutrition. The activity was a hit, and so was the food we brought to share! 

Our last day of clinical was a health fair in Chami-elementary school students came to have their weight and height recorded and get caught up on immunizations. I am not sure if the USA has anything of comparison for students. It is a great way to keep track of the population and help prevent illness and educate the younger generations. 

Panama was quite the experience. Exhilarating, heart breaking, rewarding, eye-opening...I am now back in Florida, and I am still not quite ready to be back. The desperate need for nursing care in Panama continues to weigh on my heart. I admire the extent and knowledge of the nurses in Panama-they are extremely well prepared. The role of the community nurse is far greater and far more significant than I had originally known. I don't think I will ever take my education for granted again. I will also never take air conditioning and hot water for granted either. It is amazing what a difference it makes in your worldview and perspectives when you work with a culture vastly different from your own. I have walked away with not only nursing education and experience, but life experiences as well.