University of California Los Angeles Medical Dental Public Health Brigade December 2015 Nicaragua

Start Date: Dec 12, 2015 12:00 AM
End Date: Dec 20, 2015 12:00 AM

Global Brigades offers 7-9 day Brigades throughout the year in Honduras, Panama and Nicaragua. During a Medical and Dental Brigade, volunteers have the opportunity to take vitals and patient history in triage, shadow licensed doctors and dentists in medical and dental consultations, and assist in a pharmacy under the direction of licensed pharmacists. As for the Public Health component of the brigade, our mission is to empower rural communities to prevent common illnesses through in-home infrastructural development, community leader training, and health education. Working side-by-side with community members, volunteers improve the overall infrastructure within the home through the construction of five projects: eco-stoves, latrines, water storage units, showers, and concrete floors. The five projects were chosen based on observations of medical brigade patient records, which illustrated high levels of preventable diseases caused by poor in-home health infrastructure, as well as student input and observations. Between brigades the in-country team provides follow-up to ensure the maintenance of the structures and work to find funding that will complement the health goals of the community to perpetuate future construction. 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 trends.