I've been missing you.....

I have a weird confession to make..... I had a little internal leap of joy when I saw the medicines at the mobile clinic. Weird, I know. After 3 weeks of being away from LCHC and not doing anything healthcare related, I think I missed it. I didn't realize it, but as I was helping Dr Tony to unpack the meds for the mobile clinic, I found myself holding each box of Ranitidina and Nifedipina just a little too long. It was like my long lost toys had been found. I told you it was weird.....

Now, that I've confessed let's move on to the serious stuff.  One of my big prayer requests is figuring out how to get integrated into the mobile clinic. The role of Nurse Practitioner is not widely understood outside of the US, so I probably will not be doing direct patient care, at least not right away. I think my initial role will be in some education projects as patients are waiting to be seen. I need fun, interactive ways to get people involved and to cross the French-Spanish-Creole language barrier. I'm thinking that some of my activities from Centering Pregnancy can be modified to work for other educational topics. Please pray for innovative ideas that will work in this setting and an extra dose of creativity!!

Another idea is to integrate community health projects with the students in our school. I observed one day that the kids were washing their hands BEFORE going to the bathroom and not afterwards. Interesting I thought... so I inquired a little more about this practice.  I learned that many of our kids have parents who work in the landfills all day sifting through trash looking for anything that can be recycled, reused or sold for a few pesos. I really can't even imagine as my own brief peek into our trash barrell was frightening enough, let alone working in a landfill. Anyway, after being in the landfill all day the parents usually wash their hands before touching their body or going to the bathroom. Now that I understand the practice, it's figuring out how to tactfully work with our kids on this area of hand hygiene and to teach in a way that is practical and appropriate for kids going home to houses that don't have running water.