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Dear Diary:
GC senior reflects on Dominican donation
Alicia Montoya 01
June 8, 2000
Today was one of the most satisfying days I have experienced during my short nursing
career well, at least so far. It was the best service I have ever done.
We went to a little, poor community on the outskirts
of Santo Domingo called Las Piedras del Toro. It was sort of a service trip. Rafael
(Barahona) asked us, the nursing students, if we would be able to come up with
a health assessment that we could do for the people. The rest of the group, who
did not have nursing skills, helped clean up the area and cooked and just related
to the people.
The
place where we worked was like a roof with four brick stilts holding it up. Thats
all it was. I came up with the assessment and led the activity. (It did help that
I am a third-year nursing student and am a little more advanced in my Spanish
then the rest of the girls.)
We each sat at a corner of a table. I had a
stethoscope and Regina (Miller) had a stethoscope and we had a blood pressure
cuff that wasnt very reliable. Carrie (Georgion) checked blood pressure
and pulse, Regina assessed dehydration, Allie (Burchett) assessed skin and I assessed
heart, lungs and bowel sounds. I was last. We just wanted to be able to tell people
if it was important for them to make the trip to Santo Domingo to see a doctor.
As I assessed them, Rafael would write down
my findings and this was of such great help to us. We probably assessed around
100 to 125 people.
The
villagers just opened up to me. Many, I think, thought that I was a doctor. I
had to remind them that I was a nursing student and that in many cases they would
have to visit their doctor. As each of us assessed the patients, the girls would
ask me questions or tell the patient to ask me because I knew more. This also
made me feel important. For a second, I thought that just maybe just maybe
I should reconsider my idea of becoming a doctor. I did, however, feel
a little overwhelmed. At times, I felt so useless I just wanted to go home.
There was one patient, an older lady who was
maybe 66. Her blood pressure seemed OK and then, right when she was ready to go,
she took off her shoes and two toes on her right foot and three toes on her left
foot were BLACK! I immediately thought of diabetes. In our culture, people usually
only get gangrene when they dont take care of themselves, but this lady
had no money and she didnt even know what was going on. She had all of the
diabetes symptoms, but we werent doctors and couldnt diagnose. Luckily,
a local Mennonite pastor knew there was a diabetes clinic in Santo Domingo and
referred her there.
Another
little boy had burned himself with hot water all over his face. You could tell
the mom was taking very good care of him, that he was doing OK and not getting
an infection, but it was awful to see that, because they had nothing, they had
to deal with the burns by themselves.
Rafael told me no group had ever done a clinic
like this before, but he said we did such a great job that people are asking when
we are going to be back. All in all, Im glad that we were able to be of
help to those people, at least I hope we were. To know that little me, a nursing
student just finished with her third year, was able to have an impact on peoples
lives and lead them toward health care was so satisfying. Back home, we have so
much available to us in health care but here they have nothing. They appreciate
the little things that you do so much more than patients in the U.S. do.
Im so exhausted. Im going to take
a shower and go straight to bed. We were so busy just trying to get all the people
through. We started about 10 in the morning and finished at 6 or 6:30 in the evening.
Without a doubt, this will be one of the best
memories of my whole SST experience.
Amen.
Return to December Bulletin
contents
The journey
of the magi, and travel journaling, editorial
by Rachel Lapp
Lifelong learning: the long approach
home by President Shirley H. Showalter
A small
boat on a big sea by Mary Lois Detweiler Miller 50
On service: Ireland,
Indiana, Mali by Jacob Liechty 02
Lessons from Africa
by Sally Jo Milne 67 with Rachel Lapp
Pole position: uncluttering down
under by Greg Lehman 93
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