One of the questions I was asked the most before coming on the Race was whether or not I would use my medical skills. My response was always something along the lines of, “There is no guarantee, but there is always a possibility.” Last month, in El Salvador, we didn’t do anything medical-related, except visit a children’s hospital for an hour one day. I didn’t think that we would do anything in medical in Guatemala either. It was not one of the ministries that was assigned to us; it wasn’t even mentioned as a possibility.
At her first day of her ministry, one of the nurses on the squad, who was supposed to teach English, was reassigned to the medical clinic at the school. I planned to go with her and help some during the month, but after I found out my ministry’s schedule, I wasn’t sure it would be possible. But I felt like I should mention it to our ministry host that I was a nurse, and the other medical people on the squad felt the same way. It’s a good thing that we made him aware, because he set up a time for us to work at a medical clinic!
On Tuesday, I got to be a nurse for the first time in 2 ½ months!
Before going, I was pretty nervous. I had a lot of what ifs going through my head. “What if I don’t remember anything I learned in school or at the hospital?” “What if I can’t figure out how to help the patient?” “What if my skills aren’t as advanced as everyone else’s?” And so on. Plus, I had never done any medical mission trips or even worked in a setting similar to the one we would be working in. A patient could walk into the clinic with anything and everything.
We arrived at the makeshift clinic, and people were already waiting outside. The doctor wasn’t there yet, and he wouldn’t arrive for at least an hour. It was just four nurses (myself included), a paramedic, and our translators, two kids from a school in the area. All of the supplies we had fit into one big backpack. We formed two teams, set up our stations, and began.
We started by taking the patient’s vital signs and then asking why they came to the clinic. We continued to ask questions to get a better grasp of the situation. Occasionally we would assess the patient by listening to their lungs, looking at skin irritations, etc. It was a big change from my job at the hospital, where a full assessment is done for every patient every shift. After determining the problem, we would determine a course of treatment. This is where I did things I had never really done before. As a nurse in the United States, I don’t write prescriptions or determine treatment plans for a patient. That is the job of the nurse practitioner or the doctor. But, in Guatemala, healthcare is very different. My team and I got to determine treatement plans for the patient and write prescriptions for them. Granted, these prescriptions were usually for things like flonase and ibuprofen…but still! Meet Chelsea, Nurse Practitioner.
I started the day feeling nervous, and I ended the day feeling joyful and excited. I had my first medical mission experience, and it was awesome! My team and I treated patients from all walks of life with a variety of different problems. We were able to educate our patients about how to live healthier lives. Our advice would probably be common knowledge for many people in the U.S., but here it was not. Helping people that truly need it, the people Jesus talks about in the Bible, is such a desire of mine. I am so glad I was given the opportunity to use what I know in a brand new way, a way that aligned with the passion God has put in my heart!
“…I was sick and you took care of Me;…And the King will answer them, ‘I assure you: Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers <or sisters> of Mine, you did for Me.’” -Matthew 25:36, 40
