Clinic Day One

The clinic

Just got back from my first day at the clinic. We saw about more then 100 people, which I am told is actually not that many. Julie, the pathologist told me that it was because word travelled and people were scared of us. And by “us” she really meant me due to the screaming coming from the clinic.

The day started when we were woke up around 7AM. I found a set of scrubs and got them on, and went downstairs to run the controls on the iStat and eat breakfast. We loaded the massive amount of medications and supplies into the back of a truck and then headed up down the hill. Mountain top Ministries is located on a hill, and the clinic is on an other hill. The “roads” (very much deserving of quotes) were just a little more narrow then the truck, and I swear that they ran about 45 degrees to the road. We went down the mountain, across a dry river bed, and then up the other side where we unloaded the bags and headed into the clinic.

Dry river bed

We had three stations at the clinic, plus the pharmacy and the lab. Two nurse practitioners, a pathologist, and a pediatrician saw patients and diagnosed. I drew blood and fed it into the iStat, and the pharmacy obviously handed out pills. To get the blood, I had to prick the patient's finger and draw the blood into a lancet. I think that I would have preferred doing simple venipunctures, but we don't have the equipment that we need for that. Although the finger pricks might hurt less, they took a lot longer, and the patient saw a lot more blood.

The babies were the worse, because I needed to perform heel sticks, and they just refused to bleed. The child would scream and kick, and the stress would cause vasoconstriction, which would in turn halt the bleeding. After the first three or so patients, I finally got it figured out and was able to do my job.

I didn't know why most of the patients were being seen. There were a lot of young women that were pregnant that came in for well-woman visits, and we tested them for problems with glucose and anemia. A bunch of people with hypertension. A few kids with scabies which were covered head to toe in spacial cream (the adults got a pill). Yes, a lot of screaming. We also did a lot of urinalysis and pregnancy tests.

Right now we are sitting around the table at home looking at “People Magazine”. Justin Bieber, hot or not?