Hospital Universitario

"I think everyone should be told they’re beautiful until they believe it."  - Unknown

I am truly content right now just sitting in our gathering space reflecting on the day and listening to the guitar music and singing coming from the salon de amistad, or fellowship space, at the church.  Santisimo Sacramento is such a welcoming place to live – full of people of all ages praying, socializing, and celebrating life at all hours of the day.  Just as I was sitting up above in our apartments, a few young girls called up to Esperanza (Hope) and I from the courtyard to come and talk with them.  After a few minutes of chatting, they excitedly asked us for a picture and our facebook profiles.

This morning all of us 23 of the Marquette student nurses went to the Hospital Universitario for a tour.  This hospital is associated with the Universidad Nacional de Piura and is publicly funded.  When we first started the tour of the hospital we couldn’t believe it was a public hospital.  How different it was from the other public hospital we toured.  This small hospital was ventilated, clean, air-conditioned, and looked similar to facilities in the U.S..  However, the biggest difference between this hospital and the other  Peruvian public hospital was one thing: there were no patients!  This beautiful hospital was built about 2 years ago; however, it is extremely underfunded and doesn’t have the money to keep it staffed and purchase all of the supplies and equipment that it needs.  We did end up finding a few patients on the second floor, but it is mainly used for outpatient visits from students on campus.

The lab isn't quite complete yet.

Our tour guide, Lys, was actually a UNICEF nurse from Brazil who was sent to Peru to help out the hospital in its beginning stages until the end of the year.  This inspiring, intelligent young woman has traveled all around the world working with UNICEF and had some interesting perspectives on Peruvian culture and healthcare. She said that Peruvian health care is most often "curative" versus "preventive."  She also expressed frustration with the fact that female college students she sees don't like to make decisions on their own; they must first consult with either their mother or their boyfriends for permission. After the tour we exchanged emails, so I hope to stay in touch with her!   

El grupo.

After eating lunch (chicken & rice) at la parroquia and embarking on an interesting trip to the supermercado with Vidal and my fellow classmates to pick up some essentials (mainly peanut butter), we went to meet with the women’s group, Vaso de Leche.  These exuberant women were extremely welcoming and so much fun to work with!  We did a group teaching session with the women about exercise, going on to lead the women in some stretching exercises and dances – the Macarena and the Chicken Dance!  Everyone was smiling and laughing the entire time as we flapped our chicken wings and polka’d around with one another. They kept telling us how beautiful we were, despite how sweaty we were dancing around in our scrubs. At the end of our meeting, we asked the women about topics that they would like to learn about and discuss in the future, so I look forward to working with these women again soon!

Afterwards, we had a tour of the church compound and were introduced to more of the services Santísimo Sacramento (http://www.santisimo.org/) offers to its parishioners and the entire Piura community. There is a full-time staff of 30 people that help with administrative duties, health clinics, nursing home visits, missionaries, sacraments, group meetings, the hospice, school, etc. We even got a tour of the new rooms that were built just a couple years ago to be used by medical missionaries that come to volunteer.  A team that did cataract and strabismus surgeries last week was just cleaning up – they did over 100 surgeries in a week!  The first group of nurses helped them with pre- and post-op care, and my group will be helping a group of medical missionaries do hernia surgeries in July.

At mass this evening, there was a special blessing for all pregnant mothers.  On the 25th day of every month (because it is believed that Jesus was born on the 25th) the mass is dedicated to these women in support of the Pro-Life Clinic.  Some of our Marquette nursing students also handed out colorful baby blankets to the expecting mothers!

The pregnant mothers receiving their blessing!

Christian & Kiara!

p.s. Shout out to Debbie McFarland: I am continually getting compliments on my angelo de enfermería!