July 18, 2010: Week 1
My first week at the RVPC was a good experience, although it was not was I was expecting. While the Global Healing pediatric clinic is fairly decent, the poverty of the island is obvious looking at the rest of the hospital. Combined with the crowds and the heat, it seems as though coming to the hospital is a terrible experience for the patients and their families. There is also a shortage of doctors, so patients are coming in to wait as early as 6 a.m. to be seen 4-5 hours later. With such little funding from the government the hospital must do the best with what they have. Now I can see why donations are so important.
I really enjoy my clinic duties in the pediatric clinic. The previous intern, Natalia, was very helpful in showing me what to do and where to go. My Spanish was a little rusty coming into Roatan; however, she helped me get my foundation back. I’m becoming more and more confident everyday conversing with the patient’s mothers in Spanish. I was hoping for the clinic to be open longer everyday, rather than just ending around eleven or noon. This is one of my questions for the Global Healing directors – wouldn’t be it more effective to prolong clinic hours (possibly to 2 or 3 pm) so that we could see more patients? But, besides that, I am really enjoying my time in the clinic.
In the afternoons, I do ESL classes with kids aged 6-14 from La Colonia in Sandy Bay. A nice American couple who is living in Sandy Bay for the next 3 years organized the whole thing. I really enjoy working with children because I feel like I can see things from their eyes and explain things that would make sense to them. I also do an E-learning class with some kids near Ms. Peggy’s house a couple afternoons a week. As far as community health is concerned, I am trying to coordinate a survey/intervention with one of the doctors here at the clinic, Dr. Kevin. We have found that most mothers stop breastfeeding very early, or don’t breastfeed at all, thus depriving the infant of important nutrients. We would like to know when, why and what they are using instead. While this will not reduce all of the medical problems children face, it can help with malnutrition and their immune system.
