June 18, 2012
As the first working day of week 3, and my first day with PHOP, I would say today was a success. We took off for the region of Chinchero, only an hour away. The town is made up of a variety of surrounding districts with a populous of roughly 16,000 and we were greeted by the Alcalde, or the Mayor of Chinchero. The health disparities of this region are large, with many families without access to potable water and proper sanitation measures. Over half of the population lives in poverty and is malnourished. There are only two doctors and four nurses in Chinchero.
As the first working day of week 3, and my first day with PHOP, I would say today was a success. We took off for the region of Chinchero, only an hour away. The town is made up of a variety of surrounding districts with a populous of roughly 16,000 and we were greeted by the Alcalde, or the Mayor of Chinchero. The health disparities of this region are large, with many families without access to potable water and proper sanitation measures. Over half of the population lives in poverty and is malnourished. There are only two doctors and four nurses in Chinchero.
Center for Health, located in the central plaza of Chinchero, where we set up clinic today.
We started out in the town clinic, which was at the center of town. I worked in the pharmacy, in which I helped stock and organize the night before. Our duties were to review the charts and hand out the medications we had available. Occasionally I would translate for some students if I had a minute. I currently work as an RN at Cleveland Clinic Florida Emergency Room, and my experience with Joint Commission Core Measures quickly came in hand when a patient arrived for her medications after being diagnosed with severe pneumonia with a pulse oximetry of 84%. (Even people native to these altitudes shouldn’t be that low!) The patient was initially prescribed amoxicillin, but given the severity of infection, I suggested ceftriaxone or azithromycin to the physicians, who had not realized these medications were available. As a whole PHOP saw 67 patients today, which is fewer than previous days, but I feel that we were able to give quality care to those we saw.
We started out in the town clinic, which was at the center of town. I worked in the pharmacy, in which I helped stock and organize the night before. Our duties were to review the charts and hand out the medications we had available. Occasionally I would translate for some students if I had a minute. I currently work as an RN at Cleveland Clinic Florida Emergency Room, and my experience with Joint Commission Core Measures quickly came in hand when a patient arrived for her medications after being diagnosed with severe pneumonia with a pulse oximetry of 84%. (Even people native to these altitudes shouldn’t be that low!) The patient was initially prescribed amoxicillin, but given the severity of infection, I suggested ceftriaxone or azithromycin to the physicians, who had not realized these medications were available. As a whole PHOP saw 67 patients today, which is fewer than previous days, but I feel that we were able to give quality care to those we saw.
Erica Vergara,
Penny Petys and Sarah Strong working hard at the pharmacy (farmacia)
station to distribute medications and educate those that are receiving
them in the Clinic at Chinchero
At the end of the day,
the Mayor was kind enough to take us on a tour to the church and a museum. The views from here were breathtakingly
beautiful. This was the best thank you gift I could have imagined.
The week 3 PHOP
team sitting with the Mayor of Chinchero, Dr. Morales and our Chinchero Tour
Guide in front of an Incan constructed wall as part of an ancient Incan archeological
site.
Erica Vergara, RN, BSN
CCF Florida
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