Health Related VIM Team Preparation

Since the Haiti earthquake disaster, there has been an overwhelming interest and gearing up by volunteers who want to go there and lend a hand.  A national data bank and application process has been established to provide an orderly screening and preparation process to these willing helpers.  Leadership training events are being scheduled to prepare more health team leaders.  Medical/health related teams are being given a high priority and require the most urgent preparation.  It should be noted that health team leader training is unique and must include additional elements not covered in usual team leader training.  Some of these are:

Recruitment and Licensure: Be intentional about getting the right mix of professional skill and helper/assistants.

1.  Professional medical personnel should have a current license and be in good standing.
2.  Take license copies along and/or abide by the host country's licensing requirements.
3. Recruit outside of your own community, perhaps within the jurisdiction to achieve a balance of talent.

Goals and Objectives:

1. Determine if your focus is general outpatient treatment, a surgical specialty, health education for locals, dentistry, optometry/opthalmology, etc. or a combination of some of these.
2. Your goal/purpose should match the stated needs of the project host and country needs and not be driven by personal team members' needs.

Supplies/Medicines:

1. There are many sources for low cost medicines.  Links to some of these may be found in the left-hand column of this blog under "Supplies". 
2. The leader should consult with team Physicians, NPs  PAs or  pharmacists with prescribing authority to determine an acceptable formulary.  Go to "Post Categories" in this blog and click on "supplies/equipment".  You will be connected with some posts that offer formulary suggestions.
3. Team leaders should be aware that physicians usually are required to sign for ordered medications.
4. Know the customs routine in the host country.  Many teams are able to pre-package and label meds that have a high volume usage into zip-locs as long as they put the individual packets in a 2 gallon zip-loc with the original box label and expiration date. This measure can save time once in-country.
5. Remember to take table coverings to provide clean work spaces. Calibrated measuring cups, pre-made medication labels (preferably in the local language and with pictures), syringes, infant dosing spoons, a calculator are all necessary for the pharmacy work area.
6. Physicians and dentists should plan on bringing their own personal tools, i.e., stethoscope, otoscope, pen light or a head light, reflex hammer, dental hand pieces, portable dental station, instrument sterilization equipment (hot plate, or chemicals and accompanying pans, etc.)
7. Team leaders should hold a discussion with health professionals to make sure that supporting supplies are acquired.  These might be registration/pharmacy cards for all areas of service, gowns, gloves (ck sizes needed), suture kits, drapes, dressings, tape, pens, scissors, health education materials such as videos, SODIS training materials Links to health education materials are in the left column of this blog under "Health Ed".

This is only the tip of the iceberg.  If you have an interest in learning more, please make a comment at the end of this posting by clicking on the red print below, "0 comments", or contact me via this blog's email at umvim4health@ameritech.net .