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going back all the way to 2006 I took a trip to Guatemala
through my church with a program called impacto ministries
we traveled there we spend some time in the mountains
we built couple of houses while we were there and
my husband being a physician assistant as well
we both decided that we would set up kind of an impromptu clinic
where we were working in Esquipulas
and we just found it to be a wonderful experience the people are
warm and welcoming and in very much needed medical care
on we then decided we would take our whole family back
this year and we worked hard to raise money
called on various us support from
on the hospitals that we work with
to give give supplies
so we had as plenty of supplies to take with us on this trip
it ended up that we had four huge stuffed
duffle bags full of supplies for
the trip to set up a clinic we didn't know how that was gonna look
I we just wait until we got there in kinda scoped it out and decided where
we're gonna
set up this impromptu clinic and ended up seeing
about 180 patients in two days
and then another two days working with another program call happy tommy's
allergies tend to be a big issue in this area it's very dry
they do have a rainy season but we we are actually in their winter season
down there when we were there in February
they were a common cold, allergies
skin problems we would see a lot of skin problems some problems we
saw were a little more serious and needed referal to a local physician or the
clinic
the only problem is that many of them cannot afford the cost that comes
with I'm going to a local clinic and so
this was completely free we were able to
go to the local pharmacy and get much needed medications weather it was an
antibiotic or just maybe just the simple
ibuprofen to give to them
when they need it so health care in the area there are physicians there are
clinics that they can go to but there is a cost to its about ten dollars
a person to equivalent are ten dollars
I for the patient to see somebody in the clinic in many and I'm
to not have that money to spend two to go
get health to seek health care I was so they don't know
and they just you know try to deal with things on their own and some of their
problems are quite serious and
I know of one patient that we saw
who fell and broke her ankle and had a severe deformity of the ankle and
really could have used some
you know met more medical attention and we were seeing her
three or four weeks after the injury and so there is really nothing
that could be done for this for this women and who
didn't door was unable to seek medical care at the time
of the injury so we don't know how many patients are gonna
are going to show up have for health care
it's some it's just one of those things that we just trust
we set something up and we wait and see who comes
and
we we set up in there were families who are already showing up before we were
ready to begin and they were already lining up and word spreads very very
quickly
in these little towns around the lake I'm and so we had
people coming I'm they take these little took tooks as they're called
and we had people showing up in a took took from three or four towns over
because they heard that there were people I'm here to provide medical care
and so we just set it up and
as saw whoever showed up then
and treated them best we could my
PA students I'm from the Delaware campus I had asked them to
if or I asked them if they would like to be involved
in any way and helping to I'm
provide supplies donating
you know medical supplies whenever that may look like
and they got together and decided that
they want to make blankets and I thought that was a great idea because
happy tommy's has 27 little children
and although we didn't take 27 blankets calm but we were able to provide them
with 15
blankets for their happy tommy's program and
so they got together and on their lunch breaks and the students don't have
a lot of time on their hands but
I had a handful the students who really I'm felt compelled to
help I'm they've day may not have the time to
go and serve in these communities at the time
but the really wanted to help in some way so they
bought two by fabric and on their lunch break I found them in one of our
other classrooms just tying knots and you know making blankets and I help them
to
and they were really proud of my love what they did and I was really
happy to involve
the students in this process so they can see that
you know they can do this to I'm which is really you know what being a PA is
all about i mean serving the underserved is where we came from and
I want to show them as a faculty member
that I wanna live by example and so I want to show them that they can do
this to know
and so by getting them involved I thought
it was a great task to ask for them to
for service-learning I really believe that
teaching from the perspective I love my clinical experience whether it's here in
the United States or
any of the service projects and I'm involved and i think is really important
for the students to see
I think it's important for students to see that you know faculty
will take on a task
and see a need and be able to fill that are trying to fill that I have a heart
to fill that
on the especially as a physician assistant as a member of the faculty
I think that we need to be examples about