Centro de Salud de Chitre, 3/13/12

Today was the second day of working in Centro de Salud de Chitre. For the first half of the morning, I was in the vaccination room. I administered mostly tetanus shots and pain medications IM. During the second half of the morning, I was in women's health, where I administered 2 pap smears. In the U.S., only advanced practice nurses administer pap smears, but in Panama, this is not the case. I learned it takes about two to three months to receive the results of the pap smears, because the central lab is very backed up. The lab receives about 200 pap smear slides to be tested from each clinic each week. Also, instead of using lubricant on the speculums, nurses in Panama only use a few drops of water. The speculums were plastic and disposable. The nurses in Panama also use sterile gloves for the procedure. Clean gloves are used in the United States.