Today was the first of three days that Doctora Cerritos is teaching a course for pregnant women and women with newborns near the hospital. The relationship between patients and providers is very important and I think that it is fantastic that Dra. Cerritos is teaching the class for three days to educate women about their health and their child's. This can be considered a means of preventative medicine and one that I think is very important. Communication is key to many things in life and sometimes spending the time to explain something to someone or to talk to someone or even to ask a question can make life easier in the end. Keeping parents up to date on how to best care for their kids is important to health care professionals but I think it is just as important to the patients and their families. Families form a ring of support and if a mother has to work, many times her mother brings the child into the hospital, looking out for their family members. Without this support system, I do not even want to think what could happen to the child without getting the healthcare they need.
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Because of the classes Dra. Cerritos is teaching, the pediatric clinic is closed for the next three days. After talking with Alice on the phone I figured out that the clinic had not had a thorough cleaning for a very long time. It is important to make sure the clinic is as clean of an environment as possible. Of course I clean throughout every day, but dust has gathered on a lot of the shelving, doorways etc.
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So I started my day by taking the collectivo and going into Coxen Hole to go to Eldon's supermarket. I was hoping they were open at seven or eight at the latest so I could get an early start. I got lucky. Apparently the store's hours on the week days are 7 a.m.- 8 p.m. I found what I needed right away and paid $10 for eight rolls of paper towels to stock up the clinic. I use paper towels to clean the exam beds, tables, chairs, baby scale, etc. along with Lysol and occasionally some fantastik.
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I walked along the busy roads in Coxen Hole down my normal route but in addition to my backpack, this time I had a huge package of paper towels. I got to the hospital, opened the clinic and turned on the air conditioning because I was hotter than normal, carrying those paper towels, wearing my backpack, and wearing long pants all the way to the hospital. Good thing I started early in the morning.
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I started dusting shelves, crevices, desks, and removed most of the stuff to make sure I got everything. It was disgusting how much dust I picked up, folding the paper towel every which way to make sure I didn't waste any of it. When I got tired of dusting I started going through medications we have (not that many) and got rid of those that were expired and reorganized the ones we could keep according to the labels already on the shelves.
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Halfway in between that job I needed a change and continued dusting. I started tackling the windows, and the frame behind the curtain that was coated with dust. The dust was so thick on them it makes sick to think about all of the other rooms in the hospital which are just as bad or worse. Next I started dusting on top of doorways and their frame and the tops of shelves where they probably have not cleaned since the shelves were built...
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I made a lot of progress on the cleaning and organizing. The pediatric clinic is one segment of the hospital. We have our own main door which I can lock and opens into a small hallway lined with benches on each side, and also people. Normally at 7:30 in the morning and until noonish it is difficult to walk down the hallway. Our pediatric clinic has three rooms, a main room (the biggest) with the main desk and computer, baby scale, normal scale, changing table, mat for measuring babies and a for children, a small file cabinet for forms and charts, and a couple book shelves for equipment and for books. This room is sufficient to support the services we provide and I'm glad the hospital has Global Healing's clinic for the community.
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When I was all done cleaning. All of the trash cans were completely filled and so I asked the cleaning ladies to come in and empty them for me. Thirty minutes later and after bothering them three times they came. They asked me about the clinic being closed today and why I was there. I told them the clinic needed cleaning and so I spent all day working on that. They must have been very surprised because that was the first time I had seen any of them smile at me. Usually I try and be very nice to them, but they don't seem very friendly, to me at least. After today I hope they understand that I respect them and think that they have important jobs and the hospital would not be able to function without their help.
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I thought about going to the class Dra. Cerritos was teaching for mothers because I thought it would be a good experience to see what the structure is for the classes, to learn some myself, and also to give me another opportunity to work on my Spanish. However, I had my doubts about whether or not it would be okay for me to go and by the time I seriously thought about going, it was too late to talk to the doctor. So for the next two days I translated for Clinica Esperanza until late afternoon.
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This week I ran into a few patients from the hospital in a collectivo, in Sandy Bay, and at Clinica Esperanza. I was reminded that I represent Global Healing wherever I go and I'm proud to say yes when someone asks me if I work in the hospital after recognizing me.
