Last blog!

This final blog I think should be on the entire experience there. I personally feel that I learned a lot about myself, and all the other students while I was there. The research, and all the twists and turns (that are STILL going on) I think gave me a lot broader view of what its like to be a 'leader' and to make decisions that truly matter, and most importantly to collaborate effectively. Sarah and I are lucky we were with such an amazing group of instructors and students, otherwise our first research project would certainly not have been possible. Our experiences in the Comarca put a lot of things into perspective in our lives. I now cherish the material things that I have more (and realize that they really don't matter, and I'm just lucky to have them), and realize how blessed I am to have a strong family foundation, a home, and friends. I also have much more respect for other cultures. Doing research in domestic violence, it is so easy to say 'why don't they just do this' or 'I can't believe that they think that way,' but when you sit back and look at the big picture it is much easier to see where the issue is coming from, and more importantly where it can be improved upon. I want to thank Dr. Cadena particularly for helping Sarah and I open our minds, and be flexible, and want to thank everyone for such a truly amazing experience. I can honestly say I wish I was still living it!

Tuesday June 8, 2010

*Picture of my Panama mom and her family along with my roommate


Tuesday June 8, 2010

Today my roommate and I woke up earlier than usual to go to the next town over to spend the day at my Panama mom’s clinic. It was about an 30 minute drive and along the way we picked up other nurses that she worked with. At this clinical sight it was for insured and uninsured people and offered services like the clinics in Chitre like free immunizations, paps, etc. Our Panama mom showed us around the clinic and we meet everyone in the clinic even the doctors. Then just as we observed our Panama mom give her first blood glucose test on her first patient we received a call from the director Lynette who said because we were not in the town of Chitre we were not allowed to practice nursing (Yeah I don’t know why but that is what she said). So for the rest of the day we were only allowed to observe which was such a bummer because earlier in the morning our Panama mom asked us things we have yet to observe/do and one thing on my list was paps; so that meant that I was only able to watch and observe. This news was disappointing and even to our Panama mom so she came up with the idea to go with some of the other nurses and doctor who were going to a middle school to check the growth and development of the kids there and come back within a couple of hours and I would then be able to observe my first pap and maybe even more. So my roommate and I left with some nurses and a doctor that worked at the clinic and were on our way to the middle school. Once there set up our equipment (blood pressure station, weight and height and another desk for the nurse to make sure the teens are up-to-date with their immunizations and another private room for the doctor to talk to the teens privately). My roommate and my job was to take blood pressure height/weight. We did this and took turns for about 20 students then we listened in on the conversation the doctor was having with the teens and they talked about topics like grades in school, body changes etc. After about being there for about 3 hours our Panama mom picked us up and we went back to the clinic where she worked and this is when I observed my first pap! The time came when we had to leave to take a bus back to the town of Chitre to meet us with the University of South Florida nursing students to have lunch and do seminars.

June 10, 2010

June 10, 2010

Mrs. Paula fought for us and we got to sleep in and leave around 8 in the morning to drive to where our canoes were on the Chagras River. Once we were there about 8-9 people to a canoe were given a life jacket which became very useful later on and we were on our way. We were taking these canoes up the river to eventually go hiking in the rain forest, and later on in the day travel to go see the Embera tribe. We had some troubles along the way. My canoe flipped over (Juan said that was the first time in his 8 years of being a tour guide) and the day had to come to come to a short end because we got rained out (Juan said we were the first for that as well). But live and learn right and I learned to pack a poncho and why they call it a “rain” forest.

Once we finally made it to the rain forest we hiked to a waterfall and it was the most amazing view and the most refreshing feeling when I jumped right in. But not before long the rain started to come and we had to quickly hike back to the canoes. Once in the canoes on the river the rain stopped and we decided to still continue with our plans to go to the Embera village. Once at the village the Embera tribe prepared us a variety of fruits and fried fish and showed us part of their culture. For example the tribes men played instruments while the women danced for us. It was all very interesting to see and take part in. Afterwards we were able to explore the tables that were set up with different souvenirs that were available for purchase. It had things for sell like hand woven baskets, bracelets, necklaces etc. And the interesting part was every family within the tribe had its own table and a large percentage of their income is dependent on tourism. The rain came back and this time the rain was colder and a lot more of it and we promptly had to leave before we ended up having to stay with the tribe over night due to the rain storm that was coming. It was an interesting day to say the least.

Thursday June 3, 2010

Thursday June 3, 2010

It started off like any-other morning since I have been here in Chitre: I woke up on my three inch mattress, to a cold shower and the stinging sensation in my legs while I have to squat to see my reflection in the bathroom mirror. But instead of going to the community clinical sight today the University of Panama nursing students along with nurses from the clinical were going to an elementary school to give the students immunizations. We arrived at [Sukyo] bilingual school with coolers filled with ice packets that were keeping the immunizations chilled. We assisted the nurses set up an area in a classroom in which the students would come in and sit at the chairs and desks and would come up one by one to a nurse and the student would show the nurse their immunization record. At this point the nurse would look over and verify which immunization(s) the student would need and would send the student to the other nurse that was with the nursing students preparing/drawling up the immunizations that were requested. I noticed that compared to the US in Panama they differ in some of there ways when administering shots: in Panama they believe that using anything other than water to cleans the site where the injection would be administered would counterwork against the immunization and compared to what we were taught in the US to dart, the nurses of Panama prefer when giving a shot to a child go slow to make sure you don’t hit the bone. About 30 students would come in at a time and we as the nursing students would take turns preparing immunizations such as the flu, HPV etc and then administering it. A group of 30 students would come in at a time and there were about 4 groups that came in total so take that number and divide it by 12 because that was the number of nursing students taking turns and the sum is the amount of shots I got to perform in 5 hours. I wont bore anyone with boring details of what I amused myself with while I was waiting for my turn again.
Overall it was a good experience to see how the nurses in Panama do nursing as compared to the US. One difference that stood out to me was here in the US if the child is not up to date with their immunizations they are not allowed to go to school whereas in Panama they do the immunizations right there in the school setting.

week 3

The last weekend was half miserable half amazing (for me at least). We did our dental teaching in the morning of Friday June 4, 2010. That went wonderfully. The kids were for the most part very excited to learn how to brush and floss their teeth. We just about thought of everything for this presentation except for the fact that the children were 5-6 years old and most of them had no teeth, so it was kind of funny. We left for El Valle which was like a 3 hour drive up the mountain to a rainforest like area. About 20 minutes into the trip I got a bad fever and the minute we got there I went straight to bed. I woke up the next morning and felt fine. We all went zip lining through the rainforest and hiking and I think I jumped to the conclusion that I was fine a bit too early because I spent the next three days pretty sick. I suppose when Dr. Cadena tells you not to eat the ice you should probably listen, I mean or it could have been some little kid from the school we were at because I couldn’t help but hug them all. Anyways.. my poor roommate Stephanie ended up getting the virus I had and we took turns taking care of each other. It was a very sad scene. So we went back Monday and Tuesday to Chitre where I got to experience being a patient in a Chitre clinic. The nurses were very kind but I was not too happy about getting an IV there even though it helped a lot. We spent the last 3 days of the trip back in Panama City. I think by the end of the trip everyone was getting sick and tired and sick of being tired and was just looking forward to getting back home. We got to go to a tribe to visit which was fun. We rode a canoe type thing to the village and they cooked for us and danced for us. It was a very wonderful experience. Overall the trip was exciting and a great learning experience.

week 2

The first weekend in Panama we went to the La Luna Resort on the beach. It was absolutely gorgeous. We had the whole resort to ourselves. It was a good time for all of us to get to know each other a lot better and spend some time relaxing in a some what “normal” way. It was definitely a different scene then in Chitre. I was happy for the break but was excited to get back because we had so much more to see and learn in Chitre. No one really appeared like they wanted to go back to the town since the beach was so gorgeous. We convinced our wonderful teachers to allow us one more dinner out on the way home because we got spoiled during the weekend eating really good food. The second week in Chitre went by pretty quickly. We had clinicals every day and a group teaching project due at the end of the week to teach little kids about dental health. Our clinicals were very different then the clinicals we experience here. We got to do pap smears and go out into the community and do a sort of home health care thing. The nursing students there will spend like one full day just doing vaccinations all day or one full day doing this or that. Our program at USF is not set up like that so it was cool to see a different way of doing things and it gave me a lot of practice giving injections at different sites on the body to people of all sizes and shapes.
Los Santos was the town we were staying in which our clinic was in. On that second Thursday, June 3, 2010 they had a festival called Corpus Christi. I know it was some sort of religious festival but I am not really too sure about the story behind it. We had a health fair in the middle of it and people were coming from every which direction to get free H1N1 vaccinations and free blood pressure readings. This was also very different then the United States, we would never just stand on the streets with vaccinations giving them out to whomever passed by. We mainly gave them to the middle school/ high school aged children that were helping set up the festival. I think this was one of the most fun/interesting days we had there. I got to witness a real cultural activity that they do there. It was beautiful, they spend all day outlining these designs in chalk and then filling them in very meticulously with different colored flower petals all down the streets. It was amazing how much time and effort they put into it and when it was done the roads looked absolutely gorgeous.

week 1

Okay so I can get into nursing school but I can't figure out how to create a blog on the blog website. Anyways, The first week in Panama was amazing. Everything was so new and all we were worried about was taking pictures and enjoying the sites. The trip to Chitre was beautiful but actually getting there (two days after our initial arrival into the country) was when the culture shock began. I was embarrassed with my lack of knowledge of the spanish language and I wished I had taken the time to learn some more before I got there. I met my house mother and she was absolutely wonderful. The house we were at was pretty nice. It had no AC or hot water and bugs entering and exiting the home freely as they kept the doors open. I was amazed at how the family just ignored it and accepted that as the way they live. I know here in the states if I see a bug in my home I am running for the hair spray or anything aerosole that I can kill it with. They had internet and TV but it was in the mothers house so the use was limited. None of that really bothered me, it actually made me appreciate the way we live here. Stephanie made me be her personal exterminator before bed every night and I think I got in trouble a few nights for killing the innocent quarter sized beetles. I honestly felt bad for killing them after I realized how much it meant to the family to keep them alive. After the first night I ended up just telling Steph I got rid of them instead of killing them, but that will be our little secret until she reads this of course.
The fourth day in Panama we went to our assigned clinics. I was suprised with how crowded but organized and smoothly it appeared to run. The woman in charge was absolutely wonderful and was very concerned with us being able to get the experience we needed and wanted. We had several different options as to what we were able to do on clinic days such as paps, vaccinations, going out into the community, child development, and psych. I was very pleased overall with the experience I got there. I found it very interesting that they have a completely different way of doing things but yet everything still gets done (for the most part). They don't wear gloves very often where as in the United States we wear gloves just to put our hand on a patient's shoulder. I actually got laughed at by the Panamanian nursing students for trying to wear gloves while giving a vaccination. It just showed me that good care can be given with less supplies and less technology. I also got to witness my clinic getting oriented to using a EKG machine. They looked like they had never seen one before and we use them like there is no tomorrow. I don't think some people would know what to do without their dynamaps here. I just loved how simple everything was there and how caring everyone was. If someone missed an appointment at the clinic for vaccinations the nurses went out into the town looking for them. That would never happen here. I had a great experience learning about different ways of doing things in a country that has far less then us. We take a lot of things for granted and I want to try not to do that in the future as a nurse in the States.