UC San Diego Medical June 2014 Panama

Start Date: Jun 22, 2014 12:00 AM
End Date: Jun 28, 2014 12:00 AM

Global Brigades offers a 7 day Medical Brigade for volunteers to participate in throughout the year in Panama. Medical Brigade volunteers have the opportunity to shadow licensed doctors in medical consultations and assist in a pharmacy under the direction of licensed pharmacists. Each of our partner community receives a brigade every 3 to 4 months where hundreds of patients are treated and volunteers deliver public health workshops. Between brigades our in-country team maintains relationships with the communities to provide follow-up and to conduct Community Health Worker (CHW) trainings to empower local leaders to sustain a consistent level of healthcare. Electronic patient records are collected for future visitations and to monitor overall community health trends.

Medical Brigades in Panama are seven days in length and consist of three clinic days and one household visit day. During the household visits, students are welcomed into the homes of community members in order to learn from them as well as to identify some of the root causes of the medical issues they will encounter throughout the week. Students will also have the opportunity to volunteer alongside and learn from friendly and experienced Panamanian healthcare professionals while interacting with vibrant indigenous and latino communities. Students will learn first hand about the stark disparity between the rich and poor that defines Panama, a country set to leap forward as the \\\\\\\"international hub of the Americas\\\\\\\" in the 21st century. The main health concerns of the community members are intestinal parasites, diarrhea, common cold and skin infections.