Dr. Hatt sees Patients in Dominican Rep.Part II
click here to view Part I of article & select "medical exchange" category
My family and I began international medical volunteering in 1990, traveling with several organizations providing short-term hands-on care in remote areas of Latin America. Although this type of service was interesting, educational, personally rewarding and allowed an avenue through which my husband and I could expose our children to the realities of life for most children in our world, I could see that any measurable positive impact of our efforts was small and rarely seemed sustainable.Eight years ago, I was invited to visit Grace Children’s Hospital (GCH). Because of the profound healthcare needs, it was struggling to broaden its services and raise its level of care and was looking to the US healthcare community for assistance. The hospital had struggled to access needed resources. Continuing medical education and staff development opportunities had been lacking. The GCH staff had a strong interest in receiving medical professionals from the US who wished to learn, serve, and assist them in raising resources and accessing education.
In response, the Medical Resources Committee of the International Child Care USA board of directors recommended the establishment of a program which would seek to expand the professional development of the Haitian healthcare professionals involved, increase access to resources for the Haitian healthcare community and educate and engage US health professionals in the work of the Haitian health community.
Since 2004, through a collaborative US-Haitian effort, a health professional visitation program and lecture/workshop series was developed at Grace Children’s Hospital which is held on an annual or semi-annual basis. These programs have included the pediatric staff and residents at Haiti’s government medical school’s Hopital de l’Universite D’etet D’Haiti (HUEH) and several private medical and nursing schools. To date, there have been eight conferences organized and implemented in Port-au-Prince, each hosting 5-10 visiting US physicians and nurses. Leadership has come from the health professionals on the ICC (International Child Care) USA board and designated staff at GCH and HUEH.
Choices for conference and workshop topics have been under the direction of the Haitian staff and have included pediatric respiratory diseases, neonatal resuscitation, basic and advanced life support, infection control, public health challenges in Haiti and case presentations for discussion. US participants have brought identified equipment, textbooks and supplies for donation. Outside of the conference room, opportunities for learning, teaching and further information exchange among US and Haitian health professionals have been arranged on the in-patient unit and in the clinics at GCH. Visits to other area healthcare institutions are also included in the experience.
We have seen several positive outcomes from our program. The level of knowledge of both US and Haitian participants has increased. Participating US pediatricians and nurses have committed to continuing involvement and expanding collaborations. There are plans to involve more US medical students and residents. Some needed equipment needs have been met. Relationships have been established and sustained between Haitian and US physicians and nurses. Three Haitian physicians having been hosted for educational rotations in the US, with plans to continue this opportunity.
Our short-term educational goal is to continue but to improve and expand the present program. The long-term dream is to establish a central center for continuing medical education and training within the GCH complex that could be used to host visiting international healthcare professionals and students who are there to teach, learn and serve. An affiliation with a pediatric academic center in the US or Canada would be ideal.
Recently, the ICC administrative and medical staff at Grand Riviere du Nord in northern rural Haiti have expressed interest in receiving volunteer health professionals, either as individuals or in teams, to provide medical services and education in the hospital and the several mobile clinic areas supported by ICC. With the leadership of ICC USA, a pilot group of physicians and nurses will be traveling to northern Haiti in November for a week of medical volunteer service.
It would be ideal for these sites to develop into UMVIM supported programs for service. We are hopeful that offering this opportunity to US and Canadian health professionals will better engage them in all of ICC’s work so that they may more actively advocate and raise resources in these programs and broaden the work of the UMC in Haiti.