FHI Haiti 2012: Medical Education

12.27.12 - Day Two

Woke at 5:30AM in my hospital bed to the sound of roosters, dogs, goats, and many other sounds, guarded by my mosquito net. Arrived back at 11:30PM. Incredible day of empowerment in a city right outside Carrefour. Today was about helping educate the Haitian nurses and medical students further on common diseases in Haiti, and on topics which they had specifically requested (like dental!!).  Presentations on Hypertension, Diabetes, Cervical Cancer, dentistry and a few others. Ryan had the poster prepared but since it was in Haitian Creole we reviewed what we wanted to focus on and how the talk would run. Ryan started off the day with his presentation on the oral manifestation of different diseases. Afterwards, we broke into our teams, and the medical and nursing students were divided into smaller groups as well so we could give our presentations.

We covered the cause and mechanism of dental caries, how plaque forms and its relation to gingivitis and periodontitis. We discussed the importance of diet in the etiology of caries and talked about many ways to prevent caries, and concluded with the importance of fluoride treatments, which we provided in the hope that the nurses would continue their use after our departure. We got a handful of questions from each group we presented which was great, but also gave me the impression that many of them had friends or family suffering from dental problems. After our presentation to each group, we called up participants in pairs to present back to us the presentation that we gave to ensure they were learning, and sure enough they were.

What really made the day great besides giving the talks themselves were the connections and relationships that were forming. A couple of the nurses and medical students had asked for Ryan and my contact information to keep in touch. I was especially happy to have gotten to spend a great deal of time with the translators learning about them and hearing their stories. One translator named Dickens especially stood out to me. He's 18, and fluent in Haitian Creole, Spanish, English, French and hopes to learn Dutch, on his own. I was floored. He was the dental  translator for our presentations and did an awesome job getting the information across.

On the way back from the education event we had to stop by a clinic in Carrefour to pick up the medical and dental supplies for our clinic session tomorrow. Our driver parked the bus and Ryan, Moses, Will and I walked down a narrow rocky road to the clinic, which to our surprise was locked since we had been told it would be open. After about 5 minutes of searching from an alternate way in, and calling our primary contact , a boy that was no older than 6 walks up to the door and unlocks it! Even though we got in we still had to struggle in the dark with flashlights to find the supplies we needed, but luckily everything was retrieved.

Once we got back we had dinner, and the night was spent doing medical and dental inventory, and autoclaving instruments. Our autoclave is a rice cooker- looking thing that probably confused people who saw me carrying it.  The power cut out right after our first load, so we had to autoclave our second batch in the morning. Looking forward to tomorrow, according to the team leader Moses, once we get past it, we should be all right for the rest of the trip. We'll be heading out to the countryside in Von Presse.