Day 1

Today was our first day at OFATMA. We got to the hospital around 9am and in typical Haitian fashion our point of contact (the director of the hospital) didn’t arrive until 11am. I couldn’t help but laugh as some of my peers asked where the director was and when he would arrive. To pass the time, we talked about tv shows like Game of Thrones, Grey’s Anatomy (of course), and a bunch of other random things. The director arrived and gave us an overview of the hospital followed by a tour.  I found out that OFATMA is actually the name of an insurance company that covers mostly work related accidents, including both the public and private sector. They elect to have a hospital so that they can provide superior services to their customers.

Afterwards we were divided into 3 smaller groups to go to the emergency room, labor and delivery, and a floater group. I was a part of the group that went to the ER. The ER had two entrances.  One from the outside for those that arrived by ambulance that provided direct access to the operating room. The other from within the hospital for the non-emergent, but emergent cases (like a broken hand). This entrance allowed for the nurses to take vitals and do an initial assessment. There were six beds in the emergency room. All of them were occupied when we arrived and one patient was discharged by the time we left. The patients just laid in bed, most asleep. We stood around for an hour and then it was time to go. Not the most exciting day but it was a good day nonetheless.

Once we got back to the house, we met with two doctors who joked about how American sounding their names were, Dr. Steve McAllen and Dr. Jerry Chandler . They gave us a lecture on the overview of the Haitian Healthcare System. It reminded me of one of my intro to public health classes when Dr. McAllen started talking about the different healthcare models, like Beveridge and Bismarck. The biggest takeaway was the need for “elaborate winning, contextual strategies.” An example of this would be taking an intervention that has been proven to work and adapting it to Haiti, taking into account the culture, healthcare system and government framework. After the talk we chatted about his time at Doctor’s without Borders and his work now in healthcare administration. Then, we celebrated ‘Merica with bar-b-que and Haitian beer by the pool!

Travel Day

Hey there!

So today I set off for a month long program with the Colline Foundation called the Haiti International Clinical Apprenticeship Program (HICAP) in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. With some persuasion from one of my best friends, Truce, I've decided to keep a blog of my experience to share with anyone who wants to read it and for me.

When I left my sister’s place this morning at 4am, I was filled with excitement and apprehension. Excitement because I was finally going to be able to shadow physicians in Haiti. After all of the tours to the Partners in Health hospital in the central plateau of Haiti, I finally get to go behind the curtains in my bright yellow scrubs. With that thought though came an uneasy feeling.  Would I be taking advantage of the patients in the hospital? Too often I’ve seen students with no medical training operating on Haitian patients. I often wondered how they would feel if the roles were reversed. Would they let a premed student with little to no medical knowledge operate on their family member? At the same time, I get it. As premed students we want the experience that gives it that edge in order to one up the next premed student. Where do we draw that line though and it left me wondering would I become one of them for the sake of the experience?

A couple more hours and we’ve made it to the house where we’re going to be staying for the next month. Not gonna lie, it’s a pretty sweet setup. Everyone seems cool and excited. After a dip in the pool and a couple of games of spoons, we had our orientation. We discussed the do’s and don’t. Essentially, the talk was if you can’t do it in the states, you can’t do it here. Afterwards I felt a lot less apprehensive about the impact that our role as non-medical personal in a hospital setting. I’m excited to see what this next month holds in store for me! Can’t wait to share it with y’all.