This morning we toured another public hospital in Piura called Santa Rosa. As our interpreter Felipe said, “There just isn’t enough medicine.” The people have to often wait very long to receive care – months, weeks, and days – even in emergencies. There just isn’t enough funding and supplies to go around, which was very obvious during the tour. Also, the fact that the standards of cleanliness, safety, and patient privacy/confidentiality are quite different from the U.S. was also pretty evident. For example, when we toured the maternidad (maternity) unit, we went into a room with about 6 different women – some of them had already given birth and then there was another woman in labor, who was seriously about to pop when we walked in. I’m not sure if they were going to move her to another room to give birth or not. Meanwhile, the head nurse who was giving us the tour just grabbed a woman’s baby out of her hands (without asking) and gave her to Hope! During my OB clinical this past semester, we had to do a three minute scrub at the beginning of each shift before we were allowed to touch any of the newborns. We also noticed that there were no basinetts to be found – all of the babies were sleeping in bed with their mothers (the safety of this is often debated). Down the hall, we noticed that the isolation room had a window that was open and that oncology units don’t exist in most hospitals because treatment is simply too expensive. We were then invited into the OR to view cataract & strabismus corrective surgeries being done by Vision International. HIPPA certainly does not exist in Peru.
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| Where people can pick up a number to get in line for care. |
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| The hospital was very open to the elements. |
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| Hope, loving the newborn! |
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| El grupo! |
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| Enjoying chicha morado - a popular Peruvian drink made out of purple corn. Cheers! |
In the afternoon we had an interesting presentation on natural medicine. Our presenter, Luciano, explained to us that we need to purify and detoxify our blood every year after age 20. “The first healer is God. He puts on earth the plants for us to use. For this we give thanks.” He showed us all sorts of different plants that are commonly used by Peruvians for both preventive and curative health purposes. The plants are utilized in a variety of different forms including teas, vapors, and raw. I wish I could sneak some Uña de Gato (Cat Claw), which is used to prevent all types of illness, back to the U.S. with me!
After our presentation, we finally met the infamous Padre José, since he had been traveling for the last week collecting donations for the parish. Padre Joe is actually from the United States – his parents and sister graduated from Marquette, and he graduated from Notre Dame University (we decided to forgive him for his unfortunate choice in schools). However, his love for working with the poor brought him to Santisimo Sacramento, and he has been the priest here for over 19 years. Padre Joe talked to us about the many social services that Sacramento Santisimo provides for the Piura community. These services range from various health clinics, legal services, a family-to-family meal program, hospice, women’s groups, a substance & abuse home for men, transitional women’s shelter, and many more. He also talked about how 90% of the population in Peru is Catholic, and there is no separation between church and state. This is an important factor to remember when learning about Peruvian culture and interacting with the people. Faith and religion plays a huge role in the people’s lives.
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| After mass there was a going away party for the first group of Marquette nurses! Here is a picture of Padre Joe & Cecilia saying a few words to the group. |
On a very exciting note, we got got our clinical assignments for tomorrow! My partner, Ellen, and I will be doing home nursing visits in one of the villages tomorrow....more to come!
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| "Elena" & I |
Salud!
<3 Lisa
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