Back in Ciudad del Saber

As we near the end of our trip, I have realized that these three weeks have been both the longest and shortest of my life at the same time. I have seen so much and had the opportunity to experience many different things here in Panama, yet the time has flown by! Last week we were in Chitre, a more rural community in the country (as opposed to here at the City of Knowledge). The lack of hustle and bustle, large buildings, and crowds of people were just a few of the obvious differences between the two areas.

For our clinicals in Chitre, we were divided into groups and placed in different Ministry of Health clinics around the town. At these clinics, we were able to explore the many facets of community health. These included such areas as pediatrics, vaccinations (for both children & adults), growth and development, women's health, adult health, occupational health, and mental health among others. We had the chance to have many hands-on experiences (a lot of which ended in crying babies and children =[ ) including adminstering vaccinations, weighing and measuring children, assisting/observing nurse and physician assessments, and even performing pap smears as part of gynecoloic examinations. Fortunately for me (as anyone who knows me will tell you), I lucked out and didn't have to do any paps as a result of time constraints and scheduling conflicts.

As another part of our clinical experience, we were all asked to design a patient education poster providing information about HPV (human papilloma virus). This was particularly tough considering the language barrier and lack of knowledge regarding our intended population. I think it turned out well though. Our group was asked to additionally create and perform a skit regarding the same disease, but aimed at an audience of 10 year-old girls at an elementary school in town. Ten years is the age at which the vaccination is ideally given in order to best protect against this virus. Of course, we agreed; some brainstorming, a rough draft, and a few edits later, we had our manuscript. The skit told the story of a little girl, the terrible HPV monster, and the superhero SuperVaccine. I narrated in English while Cynthia translated for the children in Spanish. Rachel, Belinda, Allison, and Sandra were clad in a variety of props and costumes including a scary looking hotel sheet, a summer dress & a set of pigtails, and a super hero cape made from a hotel towel tucked into a tee-shirt. They were all awesome sports and did an amazing job both at being corny and interpretively expressing the story line in order to keep the minds of the little ones focused. The skit helped them understand the seriousness of HPV and the importance of the vaccine. Overall, it was fun and seemingly pretty effective!

I can hardly believe we're into our last week here in Panama. Hopefully, this last week will be as interesting and as beneficial as the first two!