Wayne State February 2012 Medical Brigade - Panama

Start Date: Feb 23, 2012 10:00 PM
End Date: Mar 1, 2012 10:00 PM

Medical Brigade volunteers will set up temporary clinics in pre-identified communities in Eastern Panama to provide health care where access is limited. Each community receives a brigade every 5 months. Students on the brigade are given the opportunity to shadow licensed health care professionals while learning about local Panamanian culture. A typical Medical/Dental Brigade clinic consists of six stations: Intake, Triage, Consultation, Dental, Charla (health education), and Pharmacy. Electronic patient records are collected during the brigade to ensure patient follow-up as well as to monitor overall community health trends. Between brigades, the in-country team maintains relationships with the communities to provide follow-up and conduct community health worker training aimed at empowering local leaders to perpetuate a consistent level of health care. For every student who volunteers on a Global Medical Brigade, sixty patients can see a doctor who otherwise would not be able to. We will be traveling with 20 + first year students, 2 fourth year students, and a doctor!