Dominican Republic Medical Mission Trip- UC College of Nursing
My week consisted of nonstop work centered around prep for brigade, working on brigade, and reflection of brigade. We set up clinic in five very different communities. Each of the communities had residents living in poverty and with no access to health care other than other mission trips like this one that visited every two months. It was fascinating to observe the different environments, living conditions, and recourses that each of the communities did and did not have. Our day started at 8 in the morning setting up our different clinic stations and would end around 3-4 in the afternoon. We would on average see 100-120 patients per day. The ages of the patients ranged by newborn children to 105 year old adults. There was no limit to what or whom we could treat per day, which was very unique. From personal experience hospitals and floors in the United States are all separated by age and specialty. It was a completely new experience to go from accessing a 5 year old to seeing a 70 year old next. It was very eye opening for myself to treat patients in one specific community at a time. It was interesting to observe and note the consistent health care trends and health problems that arose in the community. It was evident through the consistent diagnosis, which resources were lacking in the community.
We would set up our clinic in the middle of the community so that residents could easily access us. It was very cool to see our makeshift clinic come to life from the limited supplies we packed up in one truck. The clinic was set up in different stations. We had a triage station where the patients would check in with their names, dates of birth, and known medical history. The patient would then move to our labs station where vital signs and laboratory values were taken. The patient would then move to be seen by a health care provider in consult. After consult the patient would then wait outside our pharmacy for their prescriptions.
Throughout the week I was given the opportunity to work in each of the different stations expanding my knowledge each day with new skills and techniques. My favorite station was in consult, working along side the physicians and nurse practitioners as a scribe. In this station I was pushed to learn new medications and dosages. Working as a scribe also gave me the opportunity to improve my documentation skills. I learned new abbreviations and medical terminology and improved my skills of documenting a head to toe assessment, which is something that I will be conducting myself with all of my patients in the future. Working as a scribe also posed as the most challenging part of the trip for me as well because of the language barrier. I do not speak a lick of Spanish, which is the primary language in the DR. A team of translators was necessary to properly covey the patient’s thoughts and feelings back to the American health care providers and the health care providers questions back to the patient. It took some time to get used to and a lot of practice to efficiently ask and explain things to the patients who were equally as confused.
Having the privilege to meet such wonderful and inspiring people was something that I will always remember. I walked away from my week in the DR in awe of everything that I had experienced and learned. I felt that I had gained new nursing skills that I could apply to my practice and new cultural competency knowledge. The warm smiles, thankful handshakes, and acknowledging nods from the patients are all interactions that I will never forget. The people in the DR were so thankful of the care that they were receiving. It was shocking to me that the patients were excited to receive a new perspiration of vitamins or get their first pair of sunglasses. These random but overlooked privileges that we have in the United States but are everything to the DR residents. I left my week in the DR feeling more humbled. Humbled that I have the opportunity to try and make an impact on others peoples lives like the people of the DR made on mine this past winter.
We would set up our clinic in the middle of the community so that residents could easily access us. It was very cool to see our makeshift clinic come to life from the limited supplies we packed up in one truck. The clinic was set up in different stations. We had a triage station where the patients would check in with their names, dates of birth, and known medical history. The patient would then move to our labs station where vital signs and laboratory values were taken. The patient would then move to be seen by a health care provider in consult. After consult the patient would then wait outside our pharmacy for their prescriptions.
Throughout the week I was given the opportunity to work in each of the different stations expanding my knowledge each day with new skills and techniques. My favorite station was in consult, working along side the physicians and nurse practitioners as a scribe. In this station I was pushed to learn new medications and dosages. Working as a scribe also gave me the opportunity to improve my documentation skills. I learned new abbreviations and medical terminology and improved my skills of documenting a head to toe assessment, which is something that I will be conducting myself with all of my patients in the future. Working as a scribe also posed as the most challenging part of the trip for me as well because of the language barrier. I do not speak a lick of Spanish, which is the primary language in the DR. A team of translators was necessary to properly covey the patient’s thoughts and feelings back to the American health care providers and the health care providers questions back to the patient. It took some time to get used to and a lot of practice to efficiently ask and explain things to the patients who were equally as confused.
Having the privilege to meet such wonderful and inspiring people was something that I will always remember. I walked away from my week in the DR in awe of everything that I had experienced and learned. I felt that I had gained new nursing skills that I could apply to my practice and new cultural competency knowledge. The warm smiles, thankful handshakes, and acknowledging nods from the patients are all interactions that I will never forget. The people in the DR were so thankful of the care that they were receiving. It was shocking to me that the patients were excited to receive a new perspiration of vitamins or get their first pair of sunglasses. These random but overlooked privileges that we have in the United States but are everything to the DR residents. I left my week in the DR feeling more humbled. Humbled that I have the opportunity to try and make an impact on others peoples lives like the people of the DR made on mine this past winter.