Harvard Medical/Public Health Brigade Jan 2015 Nicaragua

Start Date: Jan 16, 2015 12:00 AM
End Date: Jan 24, 2015 12:00 AM

Global Brigades offers 9-day Medical and Public Health hybrid brigades for volunteers to participate in throughout the year. During the medical brigade component, volunteers have the opportunity to take vitals and patient history in triage, shadow licensed doctors in medical consultations, and assist in a pharmacy under the direction of licensed pharmacists. Each of our partner communities receives a brigade approximately twice a year. Between brigades, our in-country team maintains relationships with the communities to provide follow-up and to conduct Community Health Worker (CHW) trainings to empower local leaders to sustain a consistent level of healthcare. Electronic patient records are collected for future visitations and to monitor overall community health.

The Public Health component of the hybrid brigade achieves prevention and education by implementing in-home infrastructure projects, providing health education, and engaging community members. Each student group will work with individual families, local schools, and community leaders with a focus on holistic and preventative health measures on both an individual and community-wide scale.