Clinica

Today was our first half-day of volunteering, with just our morning service commitment in the children's clinic.  The day started off great with scrambled eggs, something we only get twice a week. Ryan joined us today, making our clinic group a crew of four (Adrian, Angie, myself, & now Ryan).  The student group from Lafayette College is doing manual labor at the clinic, which resembles our group work in the afternoon.  This makes Ryan's impact in the clinic that more important since there is a need for more support with the disabled children.  Their special needs almost require one on one interaction to benefit them & there simply are not enough volunteers to stimulate the kids.
    My role in triage is interesting, because I am providing both clinical support with patients & performing administrative duties throughout the day.  I get to work with the kids in the inpatient ward at the end of my day & that really brings a smile to my face.  There definitely is a need in the clinic for support in triage & one on one work with the kids.  It definitely is a blessing to be able to do both.  I feel it's really important to be working side by side with my Peruvian counterparts & I get that every day there. I never feel that I'm doing their work for them or that they take a back seat while I do the work. They are equal partners in a group effort to make the lives of needy children better.
    Something that gets asked a lot is "Are we making a difference?", I definitely believe that we are.  The kids really need individual attention & the minimal amount of automation in triage (at least by U.S. standards) requires a lot of walking to & from offices, records storage, & patient rooms.  Having electronic patient records would be able to speed things up a bit & free up the huge space being used to store paper records.  The storage room is open to the environment & the paper is subject to moisture & insects that eventually will destroy the patient records.  A switch to Electronic Patient Records (EPR) could free up the storage room for diagnostic equipment or more patient rooms.
    If I had to choose one thing that could make a lasting impact here in the Hogar Clinica de San Juan, it would be to implement EPR.  That would take a long time & more computer infrastructure than what currently exists in the clinic.  Having the opportunity to make a difference here, even if it's just for two weeks, has been really rewarding.  I definitely look forward to another break trip in the future with UMD's Alternative Break program & their affiliation with UBelong.

-Will