Blog Número Dos!

After deciding to take advantage of this once in a lifetime experience in Panama, I felt most nervous about the clinical setting, almost more than anything else.  I wasn’t sure what to expect, what the clinical environment would be like, or how I would begin to communicate with the healthcare workers and patients.  I imagined the clinical area to be unclean, and lacking necessary supplies, and in some cases I was correct.  The clinics have to make do with what they have, and I learned that the nurses are very resourceful people, which isn’t always a bad thing! After arriving at Centro de Salud de Monagrillo, the first clinic I visited, my worries were almost immediately set to ease.  The nursing staff and students were as welcoming as they come, and were willing to teach me anything!  I expected that the clinic environment would be similar to what I am used to back home, where a patient sees the doctor, then goes on their merry way.  However, here in Panama, they preform clinic visits quite a bit differently than what I am used to.  The patients arrive and sit in a very large waiting room, when they are first called they are interviewed and their vital signs are taken, they then return to the waiting room until they are called for their actual appointment.  Patients are at the clinic for many hours until a doctor or nurse sees them, depending on the procedure being done; it is basically an entire day event. I expected the doctor would preform the majority of the procedures, but was surprised when the nursing staff was in charge of almost all of the duties. 

After spending time in the hospital setting as well, I was surprised to see the amount of technology available here! The Operating Room looks almost identical to one’s I am familiar with at home, and lacks merely nothing.  The same sterile techniques are used when prepping for surgical procedures, but gloves are rarely used in the clinics. When giving injections, they choose to use a different technique than we were taught in school.  For IM injections, the nurses at the clinic had us pinch the skin at the injection site, rather than keeping it taut.  They also aspirate during every injection, even subcutaneous injections, which I am not used to doing back home. My Spanish skills from high school came back to me quicker than I expected, so I am communicating with staff and patients better than I had anticipated, which is definitely a plus! At the hospital, many of the interns speak English, so it makes it very easy to communicate with them there.  Overall, I am surprised at all the similarities I have observed during clinical here in Panama, compared to clinical back at home!