What an exciting, crazy, eye-opening 10 days with the JBU medical
team.
The JBU team consisted of: 19 nursing students, 3 non-nursing students, 3 nurses, and 2 doctors.
The JBU team consisted of: 19 nursing students, 3 non-nursing students, 3 nurses, and 2 doctors.
We had 3 clinic days, 1 at Esther's House and 2 in surrounding villages.
We transformed a church and a government building into a useable space to treat patients.
When resources are limited,
creativity is key.
As long as we had room, health providers and medicine, we
were doing well.
The day before our clinics, we passed out medical
cards. Each card was a ticket that could
be used to be seen the following day. We would be limited on the amount
of people we could see. While passing
out cards, we split into teams to talk about Jesus and pray for any needs they
had.
The morning of the clinics, we created rooms made of boards and tarps, set up plastic chairs and tables, and rolled out caution tape to ensure kids wouldn’t huddle all around the buildings (I later found out how essential this really was).
The morning of the clinics, we created rooms made of boards and tarps, set up plastic chairs and tables, and rolled out caution tape to ensure kids wouldn’t huddle all around the buildings (I later found out how essential this really was).
Lines and crowds gathered outside our doors, but we only had
limited amount of time. We saw everyone
who had a ticket, and tried to squeeze in the rest. Instead of lining up all day, they set their
health passports in a line as a way to know who would go next (genius).
Side note: a Malawian health passport is essentially a medical record. Each time they go to a hospital or clinic, the doctors write in it and use it as a frame of reference to know medical history.
We saw over 70 patients each day. Different health needs entered our doors. Adults, kids, chronic diseases, allergies, arthritis, malaria, and more.
Translators were there to break the language barriers and 3
of them were pastors.
We had a prayer room (in our fancy tarp divided building) to encourage those who were needing hope and to ask for healing.
We had a prayer room (in our fancy tarp divided building) to encourage those who were needing hope and to ask for healing.
At the end of our day, we packed up everything we previously set up. Tarps down, chairs stacked, boards unscrewed, car packed. And just like that, the buildings were back to how they were before.
I was able to learn a lot from the doctors and nurses who
came to serve.
I am definitely not a nurse, and never plan to be one (needles- no thank you!). But their knowledge + extra medicine left behind will be useful for our kids at Esther’s House.
I am definitely not a nurse, and never plan to be one (needles- no thank you!). But their knowledge + extra medicine left behind will be useful for our kids at Esther’s House.
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