Centro de Salud de Chitre, 3/12/2012 - 3/13/2012

I was at the centro de salud de Chitre for 2 days and had a great experience. I was worried because I haven’t had any chance to learn Spanish in my life, but I was able to have better understanding with our great interpreters, Alexa and Eduardo in our group. All nurses in the clinic spent time to show the procedures for students and they were willing to help with any questions. They wanted us to have hands on experience during a short period time and tried to give us as many opportunities possible. I was impressed their attitude towards to student. The clinic was for women and pediatrics. It is walk in clinic for regular check up and vaccines for women and children. Public health care system is a lot different than U.S. health care system. People do not have to pay or they pay a small amount of money for the visits. When children come to the clinic, nurses assess for developmental milestones and the children’s growth development based on growth charts. Nurses educate the parents based on results. I was surprised that Panama nurses focus on more education than United States. In U.S. , everything is evidence-based practice and the policy is changing frequently, but in Panama, practice is still performed in traditional way such as aspiration with injection, no alcohol swap for injection, and use of oral polio vaccine