On an average day, Kathy Tindall—a per diem registered nurse who works on a medical/surgical telemetry floor at St. Joseph’s Hospital Health Center in Syracuse—might treat a dozen patients at most.
During a one-week medical mission to San Salvador, El Salvador, with Mission of Miracles Jan. 26-Feb. 3, she—along with nine other students pursing bachelor’s degrees through the College’s Accelerated Studies for Adults Program (ASAP) and Associate Professor of Nursing Carolyn McAuliffe—saw approximately 200 patients per day.
“The physician with whom we worked, Dr. Daniela, is employed by the Episcopal church in El Salvador,” said Tindall. “She travels to nine of the poorest villages in El Salvador once every two weeks to provide medical care; sometimes her only way to get there is on horseback. We traveled to six of these villages.”
According to Tindall, there are approximately 7 million people living in El Salvador. Nearly one-third of the population resides in the city of San Salvador. The climate of El Salvador is tropical and there are two main seasons: rainy and dry.
“Both make growing crops difficult,” said Tindall. “Clean water is also a problem in rural areas.”
While the country is “beautiful” and has a “long history,” pollution, poverty, malnutrition, gangs, and violence are prominent, according to Tindall.
“A large portion of the population is agricultural workers who have no [health] insurance,” said Tindall. “There are regional hospitals and health centers, but the bigger hospital is in San Salvador. There is one children’s hospital for the whole country with 16 ICU beds, about 12 step-down beds, and a handful of NICU beds.”
Tindall said a typical day involved reporting to the buses by 7:30 a.m. Most villages were an hour-and-a-half to two hours away. There were six medical providers—doctors, nurse practitioners, and a physician’s assistant—and each worked with a translator and a Keuka nurse.
“The nurses took vitals signs, assessments and notes, dropped prescriptions off at the pharmacy for filling, and escorted patients if they were transferred elsewhere,” said Tindall. “Patients ranged in age from a few weeks old to 100-years-old and older. Common problems diagnosed were parasites/malnutrition in children, reactive airway disease from cooking over open flames indoors, hypertension, and depression or post-traumatic stress disorder.”
In addition to medical care, stations were set up to provide psychiatry, dental, and vision care. Another station was dedicated to the HIV/AIDS prevention program that the group launched.
“Our HIV/AIDS program had three components,” said Tindall. “The first was an information session where a nurse working with a translator would teach about HIV/AIDS, how to prevent it, and treatment options. The second was a condom teaching station where a male nurse spoke with male patients and a female nurse with female patients regarding the proper use of condoms in order to protect against HIV/AIDS, other STDs, and unplanned pregnancy. The last stop was a blood draw station where patients could have rapid tests performed.”
According to Tindall, the HIV/AIDS information was received differently in each village.
“In some villages, we saw only a few patients; in others, we saw 40 or 50 for teaching and condoms, and tested between 10 and 12 patients,” said Tindall. “No one we tested was positive for HIV/AIDS.”
And, they made certain that their message would live on even after they returned home.
“We were able to leave our teaching materials, several thousand condoms, and several hundred rapid tests with Dr. Daniela so that, as she continues to visit these villages, she can continue to teach, test, and provide patients with condoms.”
The other students who went on the mission were Megan Atkinson, Nicole Cathcart, Brad Corrigan, Stacie Corrigan, Mary Downing, Kim Henry, Laurie Nagel, Rebecca Hokanson, and Joyce Springer.
-- Tanya Cornell-Kestler
