The story of my journey...

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

What exactly I'm doing here

So just to give you all an idea of my typical day for the next 4 weeks, I have:
Breakfast from 7-8
Spanish from 8-12
Lunch from 12-1
Tour from 1-5
Dinner from 5-6
I will have 1-2 hours of Spanish homework each evening, and I will attempt to run before breakfast at least 3 mornings per week.
Basically, the rest of the time is mine!

Now, once I complete the Spanish language training (4 weeks), I will be able to begin my volunteer placements, which I will undertake during my last 6 weeks. I will spend my mornings (from 7-12) at the Regional Hospital Santiago, which is the biggest hospital in the Jinotepe/Diriamba region. I will spend the first portion of the morning helping with specific tasks such as obtaining information from patients, taking blood pressure, temperature, and weight measurements, and organizing supplies required for different areas in the hospital. The greater portion of my morning will be spent attending surgeries. I am to shadow doctors and help in the surgeries, the delivery room, and with general treatment. Now of course, to what extent I will be able to help, I am unsure. The last part of my morning will be spent visiting with patients. I will be playing with children in the pediatric ward, helping recovering patients walk and go to the bathroom, as well as helping to feed patients. This hospital is about a 10 minute walk from my house.

I will come home for lunch from 12-1, and then I will move to my second placement: SILAIS clinic, or Centro de Salud de Jinotepe. This is about a 15 minute walk from my house (in the opposite direction of Santiago). I will work from 1-6pm at this clinic. I will do much of the same tasks as mentioned above, with the addition of giving vaccinations to adults and children. I will also be assisting nurses and doctors in hands on work with the patients, as well as preparing and presenting health and medical information (HIV awareness, nutrition, and hygiene).

The SILAIS clinic also has a travelling clinic, which I will be able to participate in when I choose. This clinic consists of a team of doctors, nurses, and volunteers who travel to rural communities around Jinotepe and give vaccinations and provide basic health care.

Needless to say, I am extremely excited to offer all that I can to these volunteer placements, as well as learn all that I can!

1 comment:

  1. Hi Meagan, we've been following and are so thrilled with everything your doing! Hope you learn so much and have a wonderful time. We are so proud of you, and it's wonderful seeing everything you are doing...best wishes form all of us, xoxo!!

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