Blog número dos

After spending the past two weeks in the community of Buenos Aires, I can confidently say that I will be a better nurse. The time I have spent working with patients, the healthcare team, and members of the community has been both a pleasure and a learning experience. By working with and beside the nurses at Buenos Aires, I now have a better understanding of the role of the community nurse. The community nurse dedicates so much of his or her time to ensuring the health of the community is a top priority and is well-maintain. Between enforcing the importance of innunizations, traveling to nearby buildings to update vaccinations, and spending hour after hour providing care to those in need, the community nurse dutifully serves the community in a most positive manner. It has been such an eye-opening experience to observe the community nurse in her endeavors as well as her frustrations. Understandably, being a community nurse is difficult because compliance may be low in certain areas, especially those that are set in their ways and do not want to change their habits. For example, a big issue in the Buenos Aires community is that the majority of women want to give birth in their homes instead of at the hospital. As the nurse in the clinic, Adelina never failed to educate her patients on the danger of giving birth in the home while also reinforcing the importance of giving birth in a hospital. Throughout my experiences, I have also established a better understanding of cultural competency and how to practice it. Obviously, speaking a different language gives rise to a plethora of barriers while trying to provide healthcare. It is also sometimes difficult to express one's compassion for another appropriately because some people are extremely vulnerable and welcome hand-holding, embracing, and other gestures; while others remain extremely stoic and are not keen on the concept of touching and embracing. Despite these difficulties, I have the utmost respect for the culture I have been immersed in and am confident that these understandings and experiences will allow me to be culturally competent wherever I practice nursing. Overall, thus far, my time in Panama has been enlightening. I have learned so much about my surroundings, the culture, my peers, and myself. I feel lucky to have met some of the most passionate, caring, humble and kind people; these characteristics are what I strive for not only when I provide care, but in everyday life. Seeing the conditions that so many people live in have made me feel sad for them, but also reinforced just how lucky I am to have a good home, good health, and good relationships. I have learned to never take these things for granted. We only have about five days left in Panama, and I fully intend to do as much as I can to encourage my own learning, as well as others'.