Today was the first day of our Medical Mission trip with the Capstone College of Nursing to Santa Cruz, Bolivia. Being in the southern hemisphere it was the winter season although temperature were still in the 50s to the 60s. However, the wind was up to 35 mph making it extremely cold! We rode from our hotel in Santa Cruz out to a village about 45 minutes outside of town. When we first go there we met with the local church pastor and set up our medical supplies. The patients could choose either medical, eye, or dental when first coming to the clinic; they registered with local volunteers of the villages where they could be registered in their own language. I started off by triaging patients in medical. This included getting their medical history, asking their primary reason for being at the clinic, any other chronic medical conditions that they were suffering from, and alcohol and tobacco use. Once these questions were asked, we took the patient’s blood pressure, temperature, respiratory rate, heart rate, and weight. Once they were finished in triage, they were taken to the next step of the clinic which was meeting with the primary care nurse practitioners and physicians. Once they were seen by the primary physicians, they were directed to the pharmacy to get medications to help with their specific conditions. )Most of the people in Bolivia drink water that contains parasites, therefore many patients needed anti-parasite medications.) The people were then sent to spiritual counseling if they chose. The first day in Bolivia was absolutely incredible!
