Day 3: A Community Experience

Submitted by Dori Rees:

We got to start our morning off with an early drive to the Provence of Monteplata. Monteplata is the third poorest Provence of all provinces in the DR; however, it’s very beautiful with a lush environment. We took a pit stop to try some fresh coconuts and of course take pictures of the pigs. Pigs in Monteplata are considered to be a part of the familia (family) which goes to show that no one or thing is left out. Dr. Martha Butler, one of our in-country hosts, told us “remember what you guys have,” and that hit home. Being able to see homes and street vendors in this part of the country made me realize how we often forget how fortunate we are.

We also had the opportunity to tour the municipal hospital in Monteplata. A municipal hospital is what we consider a general hospital in the U.S. The above picture is one of the 21 beds that the Monteplata hospital has. This particular hospital has 249 employees, with the majority of them being female. Rooms appeared under-equipped and less private, due to space restrictions and not having the same HIPPA laws as we have in the U.S. As we walked through the hospital, we saw open patient files lying around, a file room that was open with no door, medicines in open cabinets unlocked, and unstable electricity. I was very concerned as we walked through because of the limited privacy of patient information and various infection risks. The unlocked and open medicine cabinets were also of concern. I truly hope that they will be able to keep improving their health care system as the above description is a major improvement from what it used to be a few years prior. We also visited a primary health unit in a smaller town that provides basic health services, and the mayor stopped by for our visit to welcome us to his city.

Submitted by Emma Lewis:

After the health facilities, we got to have some adventure time! We traveled just a few miles from the hospital and found our way to a baseball field. We were going to play a baseball game with the local boys school team! We were all super nervous about this as we heard they are pretty great at baseball, but it turned out to be a blast! We even put eye black on our faces. The game started, and we all had a great time going up to bat and running the bases! The funny part was that the boys went “easy” on us. If we were struggling to hit the ball, they pitched to us multiple times until we did. And if we were running pretty slow, they would “miss” the catch so we made it to bases. It was lots of fun and quite a laughing experience for us. Something else that made the experience so worthwhile was our communication. Even between two different languages we were able to interact with the boys through body language and some Spanish or English phrases. It was difficult at times, but it made us bond with the boys and have more fun. At the end of the game, we brought some gifts to the boys. Thanks to Dick’s Sporting Goods, we got balls, helmets, mitts, and bats for them to use. They were so excited when we handed them the equipment! Afterwards, we shook hands and thanked them for a great game.

Our final stop for the day before dinner was the COSMOS simulation lab with Dr. William Duke. Dr. Duke is the Dean Faculty of Health Science at the Universidad Nacional Pedro Hendríquez Ureña. This university is the first private university in the Dominican Republic, founded in 1966. There are now about 11,000 students. Here, we got to experience a hospital simulation at the school. The hospital simulation was meant to show a real-life experience of what you would do in different practices. We met Alfred Toledo who is a professor in the hospital simulation. He showed us different items they used including a real ambulance (pictured above) and human simulators. These human simulators are able to breath, blink, sweat, and more. You can use these to do CPR, take heart activity and heart rate, and conduct imaging, such as ultrasounds. Students are tested on certain procedures so they can apply them in the clinical setting. Seeing this really changes my perspective on applied learning. Being able to actually use life-like simulators really enhances the learning experience. I would love to work with these kinds of practices to really prepare myself for the future of healthcare and working with patients. After the tour, we learned about the public health background of the Dominican Republic from Dr. Duke. These helped us get a general idea of the different causes of deaths, life expectancy, and more, as well as the major public health problems facing the DR.