Carol's Blog 1 USF College of Nursing

We arrived in the city of Chitre on Sunday March 11, 2012. We are here for our community health clinical experience. We spent Monday and Tuesday at the Centro de Salud de Chitre. The staff was very friendly and welcoming to us. Some of the procedures and techniques used by the nurses were quite different from those we were taught in the US. For example, water is used instead of alcohol before giving injections. In addition recapping needles is still practiced here because there are no safety needles available. Despite the language barrier, the nurses were able to teach us their techniques. It was a good experience being immersed in a Spanish speaking setting and seeing how much I was able to understand. We spent some of our time in the women’s health clinic where we were able to perform pap smears. We also were able to give injections and breathing treatments to children and adults. The patients were kind and accepting of us. It was good to work in a community where care is available to everyone and not based on a person’s ability to buy health insurance.                                      

                                          

                              Eduardo and Ping playing with one of the babies.