Penn State Medical/Dental/Public Health Brigade To Nicaragua January 2015

Start Date: Jan 1, 2015 12:00 AM
End Date: Jan 9, 2015 12:00 AM

Medical Brigade volunteers will set up temporary clinics in pre-identified communities in Northern Nicaragua to provide healthcare where access is limited. Each community receives a brigade every 3-4 months. Students on the brigade are given the opportunity to shadow licensed health care professionals while learning about local Nicaraguan culture. A typical Medical/Dental Brigade clinic consists of six stations: Intake, Triage, Consultation, Dental, Charla (health education), and Pharmacy. Electronic patient records are collected during the brigade to ensure patient follow-up as well as to monitor overall community health trends. Between brigades, the in-country team maintains relationships with the communities to provide follow-up and conduct community health worker training aimed at empowering local leaders to perpetuate a consistent level of health care. For every student who volunteers on a Global Medical Brigade, sixty patients can see a doctor who otherwise would not be able to. In addition, the winter brigade will include a three day public health portion. During the public health portion students will have the opportunity to gain knowledge of how important sufficient public health is to the overall health of community members. Students will work alongside community members to build latrines that include a sanitation unit and septic tank, ecostoves and construct concrete floors.