Dalhousie Medical/Dental/Public Health Panama 2014

Start Date: Aug 17, 2014 12:00 AM
End Date: Aug 26, 2014 12:00 AM

Medical Brigade volunteers will set up temporary clinics in pre-identified communities in Eastern Panama to provide healthcare where access is limited. Each community receives a brigade every 3-4 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.

Public Health Brigades volunteers empower under resourced communities in the developing world to decrease life threatening diseases by improving home infrastructure and providing public health education. Working side-by-side with community members, volunteers improve the overall infrastructure within the home by building compost latrines.