When I first learned of this trip during my ENT rotation in July, I thought that it'd be a great opportunity to serve and to gain greater experience in the field. I signed up right away and didn't look back. That was in July and it seemed to take forever for February to come around. February finally arrived and the trip came and went so quickly that you hardly have the time to think about the things that we did and the people that we met along the way. So here, I'll try to recap on some of the things I remember most.
The typical day started at 6am with breakfast on the ILAC campus and clinic/OR started at 7am. The students along with Dr. Matz and whichever ENT attendings were available would run the clinic. The residents were in the ORs all day operating. Per clinic day, we saw between 70-80 patients, which is an overwhelming task in itself and even more trying when we factor in the language barrier. Thankfully, we had the Peace Corp volunteers to help us out in that regard.
The Peace Corp volunteers were a tremendous help to us throughout this whole trip. They helped us gather information about their histories, so that we could treat the patient appropriately. They got so good at helping us out with histories, that often time, they were able to ask all of our questions without us prompting them. Towards the end, it became a fairly efficient process. Without their help, we wouldn't have been able to see as many patients as we did.
The clinic, OR, and PACU nurses were great. They kept everything running smoothly, so that we could transition from one patient to the next. The OR staff was great and kept things moving along in the OR. The PACU was busy. There were patients both in and outside of that area, recovering from their surgery. There were only a few hiccups where patients had to come back for vomiting issues, but otherwise, things were smooth.
Billy and Brenden keps things running behind the scenes. Billy fixed pretty much any machinery that broke down, including an anesthesia machine. Brenden got everything cleaned and sterilized for the ORs. They probably had one the toughest jobs there, but no one ever sees the things that they do since they aren't interacting with patients directly.
The anesthesia crew worked hard as well. The turn over of each room was very fast -- one room recorded 40 seconds from one patient to the next! Patients were treated as they would have been treated if we were at Loyola. I was very impressed overall with their part of the operation.
Lastly, the clinic. It was mainly student run with Dr. Matz being the primary attending. As a student, we were given a lot more responsibility compared to back at home. We saw almost every patient, scoped them if needed, wrote scripts, gave out medications, and signed them up for surgery. It was a great experience for us to see so much volume in such a short amount of time and to be able to do as much as we did. It was tiring, no doubt, but a great experience, too.
The days were long and busy. Everyone was always running around doing something. The great thing about this trip was at the end of the day, you got to sit down and have dinner and some drinks with your colleagues and talk about the day. It was a great way to let loose and see that the people you work with are also people whom you can talk to and spend time with. In the end, it seems that that it what matters the most -- the people, both the ones you work with and the ones you serve. They make every bit of a tough job worth it.
David Chan, MS4
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