Last day at Caprisa...on to other exciting clinical sites...

Today was my last day at Caprisa, the HIV clinic I talked about in my earlier post. I felt even more excited to go to clinical, because I had already met many fo the staff and got the opportunity to assess and attend to patients last week when I was there. I worked again with Sister PK, and I can't say enough how amazing she is! Together today, we saw 12 patients. Since I had already learning last how to chart, I charted on the first patient of the day! :) She told me she really enjoyed my enthusiasm to do things, which was a real encouragement. Throughtout the day, I gave many DMPA (Depo) injections, just like last time. Because I was also writing treatment plans, I got the opportunity to ask alot of questions about all the different kinds of medications, which are really different from those in the States. Sister PK was telling me that much of our medications in the States, for example pain medications such as ibuprofen and acetaminophen, are much stronger and are not used that often out here. Also, they are more expensive. We treated a couple STI's today, which was different from last time. I really feel like I am aplpying all the things I learned in my OB semester. :)

Later on in the day, I asked if I could help the nurse that draws the "bloods", CD4 count, viral load, chem panel, etc., for all the patients. Of course, Sister PK happily agreed and introduced me to Sister Nondumiso. She was just as nice as Sister PK , and before I knew it, I was drawing blood on a patient. This was one of the skills that I wanted to get more practice on, and I sure did. I drew about bloods on about 4 or so patients. And what was really cool was that I wasn't really nervouse at all! :) I felt pretty confident. Sister Nondumiso was also a really good teacher.

Before leaving that day, I was invited to sit in on what is similar to a post-conference meeting, Including myslef, there was 8 of us in the meeting, one being a doctor, two neing nurses, two being counselors, and a couple other positions I am unsure of. I felt really privileged and honored that Dr. Paul invited me to sit in on this meeting. The three topics discussed were the age and manner at which disclosure of HIV should be for children (which I think I might write my ethics paper, the development of TB after beginning ARV treatment, and the development of lactic acidosis due to a specific ARV reimn. It was really enlightening to listen and learn about different cases going on Caprisa. The more that I continue to learn about HIV, the more interested and passionate I get! Last time I left Caprisa, I had learned so much, an this time after leaing, I felt that I had learned even more! I don't know how to expain it, but inside of me, I am fired up to learn about this rampant disease that is affecting so many people of this country. Until next time...