Scott Fears - 3/13/12

On Tuesday I shadowed as well as helped the nurses give vaccinations to kids as well as adults in the Policlinica. The public health system puts much effort into insuring that citizens are up to date on a wide range of vaccinations. I noticed each patient had a ‘health booklet’ that they kept with them. This booklet contained a majority of the person’s health records, including vaccination dates. No electronic files were kept for the patients. All records were kept hard copy. I saw no drawback to this approach. As a matter of fact, I saw some advantages in that the patient’s were encouraged to maintain their file, understand its contents, and bring it with them to their health care provider. On this day I gave approximately 20 vaccinations. Some were oral (polio and hantavirus), some were subcutaneous, and some were intramuscular. It was good for me to have so much practice, as practice makes perfect. I found the most challenging injection to be the intramuscular injection into the deltoid of young children. This is a difficult area to stabilize and if/when the child moves quickly it is quite easy to botch the injection. I learned to error on being firm as opposed to gentle when stabilizing the children’s arm. All in all, I felt both Monday and Tuesday were very good learning experiences at the Policlinica.