Hello! My name is Janette. I am an RN from Pennsylvania and I came down to help out in the clinic for a month. It is my turn to blog so I will tell you a little about what I am doing while here.  First thing in the morning  I do several dressing changes on wound patients. The main thing I’m doing though is the prenatal program. We call all the pregnant ladies that have arrived by that point (some keep coming throughout the morning) and have them sit in a room all together. We do vital signs and then have a little  teaching session. We use a book on fetal development that shows pictures of the different months and we talk to them about drinking enough water, eating healthy foods, etc. Then Whitney and I each take patients and do consultations. A consultation starts by measuring fundal height and finding a fetal heart beat. Then we do a focused assessment and write up a list of medications for them based on that. Each lady is given an ‘appointment’ to come back to the clinic. Healthy patients usually come every month; others come more often.
           Here’s a little taste of the medical system down here:  Last night Donavon took a patient out whose life depended on an operation. The first hospital wouldn’t take him, the second was going to but then the doctors all had to leave for an emergency, finally the third hospital did accept him and was going to do the operation this morning. However, they called this morning and said they didn’t have a bed so who knows if he got the surgery or not. This is Haiti! The mission will follow up with him and do what they can to make sure he gets the care he needs.     

 

Whitney and I

The clinic staff