DR day 3

Today was an amazing day! Our clinic site was absolutely crazy.  We were sent to a place called San Jose. We held the clinic in a community building, I think it may have been a church and the pharmacy set up in a house across the street. And by street I mean 8-foot wide alleyway, crowded with at least 200 people ALL DAY LONG. Unfortunately, we were only able to see 128 pts. When we had to close triage there were at least 30 people still in line, a lot of people were very angry. It was very difficult to turn people away.

One thing I learned from this trip is the value of incorporating community leaders into running the clinic. We had a man who from my limited Spanish, I think was a pastor, or some sort of bible teacher who made a list of patients as they showed up an served as bouncer and door keeper to the triage room. He was so helpful and it was good to work with him.

This evening was a blast. After dinner I ended up playing soccer on the patio with three other students. It was so much fun. Unfortunately, one of the guys cut open his foot pretty badly so that ended the game. Then I got to be nurse Sarah in action bandaging it all up. After that we had a huge bonfire. I ended up staying out talking till 1 am.  Getting the bonfire lit was 30 minutes of entertainment in and off itself. Who ever had set it up did it all wrong, they had all big sticks and no kindling or tender, so of course the fire was not getting anywhere. I’m telling you there’s nothing like watching a bunch of med students figure out how to start a fire. We ended up using old gauzes and class notes as tender! We even had marshmallows and chocolate to make smores.  

This trip so far has been amazing! Everyone treats everyone else with respect. No one talks down to me because I am an undergrad. Everyone works together as a team.