Day 8: 1/11/15 Campo Day 2 Hondo Valley, Elias Piña

Today was our second clinic day. We were situated in the local church  in a town called Hondo Valle in Elias Piña about 2- 3 hours away from Las Matas de Farfan. We provided health care to over 150 residents of the community; women, men and children of all ages. We set up four nursing stations where we worked in teams of three. Our nursing assessments consisted of completing subjective and objective data including the medical health history. Many of the chief complaints consisted of stomach pain, skin itchiness and joint pain. The clients we saw that complained of a stomach ache explained that they felt something moving inside their body, we believed it to be parasites. Many people had parasites. Over half of the adults we saw had systolic blood pressures of 140 and over. Almost everyone were prescribed medications to manage their blood pressure but many reported lack of money to buy their medications. Some do not remember the last time they received medical attention in a hospital/clinic. Some didn't know how old they were.

As the church based clinic came to an end some of the students had an opportunity to visit another site to set up a second clinic. The second clinic area was at  the greatest distance from the center of the town. It was mainly agricultural  community where the workers attended to the crops but did not own the land. Most of the workers lived their entire lives in small wooden  houses near the fields they tended.  As we traveled up the uneven dirt road and through a stream, we saw adults and children walking around.  None of the children had shoes. As the agricultural workers arrived, we began assessing their health. Their living conditions were reflected in their health. Unfortunately every worker we assessessed suffered from one common issue: hunger.Three girls in a row sat down and complained of the same concern. Each had pain in their stomach, particularly early in the morning, so they would vomit to feel better and then they could have breakfast, yet the pain never really subsided. One said she used salt and juice of a orange to take away the pain. Now we were there to provide some simple pharmacy medications like Tums or Tylenol, but how do we fix hunger? How can we see the physical effects of malnutrition and not be able to do anything? We had some calorie packed peanut butter, but only enough for one pack per person. As our time came to an end, we had to leave through the back door to avoid being bombarded by people with more medical problems.  The personal products we gave away as we were leaving to try to give at least something to those who were waiting --- since we had no more supplies.  The most heart wrenching part of it all was sitting in the back of the truck to leave and having the entire community standing around us in hopes that we would stay and help them.

This was one of the most eye opening experiences for a group of nursing students to see, as we had to physically leave people who still needed help. We are all in this profession to help and heal others, and to leave someone behind is devastating. And these were not people who complained of a headache just to get pills, they genuinely wanted to be helped and could care less about having a bottle of pills that would eventually run out. Today we smiled, laughed, and cried together. The experience of today and the ones prior to this have molded us into one. These experiences have influences our perception of health, need, love and life.


By: Daniela Pena, GN and Kelly Benson, SN