clinic

Today we attended the clinic we have been at all week. We were divided up into pairs and rotated throughout mental health, growth and development, maternity, injections, blood pressure, and HPV teaching. Two students were also sent to a highschool where they administered injections and two students participated in home health nursing.
In the mental health group, students were able to listen to a psychiatrist speak to paitents about their mental illness and issues with their medications. Some clients were here by court order and attending their routinely visits.
Students who attended growth and development gave injections to children and the polio vaccine which is administered orally. For babies who were eight days old, students weighed their body and measured their head circumference.
In the maternity section, students performed and assisted in Papsmears where they were able to locate and identify the cervix and witness what it looks like to have an infection.
Two students gave over 200 influenza vaccines that were administered for free to anyone who desired and had a social security. By the end of the day we felt like pros.
In home health nursing, two students traveled to farms to administer vaccines to the local farmers. Each student administered at least twenty vaccines. When asked to describe their experience, they stated they felt like they were traveling through the jungle because they saw wild animals like monkeys and bulls. The farmers were very nice in return and provided the students with eggs and fruit which helped to make our delicious lunch of scrambled eggs.
Lastly, we provided the patients in the sitting room with a display on HPV and passed out questionaires to be answered on their knowledge of the disease. Over fifty surveys were completed and the patients were interested in the material we provided.
At the end of the day, we attended an orphonage, which contains children who were abandoned and abused. The orphonage was run by nuns and contained girls and boys up to the age eighteen. On their campus there was living quarters, a church, a school, and a play ground. The houses were divided between the age groups. The toddlers stayed in a two bedroom house with a play room and kitchen. There were two bedrooms with about nine cribs to a room. In the other houses there was the same kitchen, play room, and dining area plus two bedrooms. In both of those bedrooms contained bunkbeds, seven or eight to a room. Most of the girls were shy but some had smiles on their faces that made you melt. Their conditions were clean, they were fed, and clothed. You would think they would be so unhappy in this situation, but when you asked, they were just so happy to be in a place where they felt comfortable and loved.

Melissa Skrzypek