I will be traveling to Diriomo, Nicaragua to serve as a medical provider on a mission trip. We will be working at Los Rayos de Esperanza, an established medical clinic in the area to provider free healthcare to the local community. We will see patients for primary care as well as urgent care as needed. We will also be providing medical home visits for community members unable to travel to the clinic. We will be performing exams, prescribing medications, and ensuring proper follow up with the Los Rayos clinic after our departure. We will work in collaboration with a full-time physician employed at Los Rayos. This medical mission trip provides access to healthcare for a population with little access at baseline.
The people of Diriomo, Nicaragua will benefit from our trip. The community is notified when medical mission trips, such as ours, will be in town so they can travel in to the clinic for free healthcare or follow up as needed. The population served is newborn to geriatric needing primary or urgent care. Often, non-medical volunteers who are on the trip set up a camp for children of the community, such as a sports camp, allowing parents to receive health care without the additional burden of finding childcare as well. This allows parents and children to both receive free healthcare resources as even routine checkups, prescriptions, and education on hygiene and nutrition can have a meaningful impact. Nicaragua is often considered the 2nd poorest country in the Western Hemisphere and the poorest in Central America. The average DCP per capita is only $2,600 making malnutrition and food insecurity a major problem in Nicaragua often leading to preventable medical problems which we will see and treat.
We expect to have a team of approximately 20 volunteers on this mission trip including 10-12 medical providers and 8-10 general volunteers. We will provide 5 total days of free medical care, 3 days within the clinic and 2 days performing home visits. We plan to provide medical care for over 200 patients during those 5 days including medical exams, medication prescriptions, basic procedures (joint injections, aspirations, wound debridement, etc), and complex imaging orders for the nearest hospital. Follow up care will continue to be provided through the full-time clinic staff on site once the mission trip has concluded.
I have never gone on a medical mission trip but have volunteered in the past as a medical provider on Honor Flights with veterans. Following an Honor Flight, I am always tired from the shear work, but feel enlightened, thankful, grateful, and as if I was able to give back to a population that is incredibly deserving. I will be attending this Nicaragua Medical Mission Trip with a peer who I work with at Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center who has gone on the trip before. She was so moved by the experience, it was infectious. I expect to have the same experience in which I am so affected by the trip, I not only want to continue to go and give back, but I can influence others in the medical field to do the same.
Through our medical mission trip, we were able to increase access to medical care for the people of Nicaragua who live in more rural and underserved communities. These people are incredibly warm and welcoming as well as resilient with a strong sense of community. Stable work can be difficult to find and many lack the finances or ability to travel to see general practitioners or specialists. Many also lack the ability to afford monthly medications, vitamins/supplements, or nutritious food. For many in rural Nicaragua, there is no refrigeration, no stove top or oven, leaving much of their food to be cooked over an open flame.
With limited sanitation infrastructure, agricultural runoff, and lack of local water treatment there is also a chronic concern for intestinal parasites and gastrointestinal issues. While purified water is available for purchase, with limited finances many are unable to afford clean drinking water.
Our group was able to staff a local clinic in Diriomo for a few days for those who were able to travel in for care. Through neighborhood health promoters we were able to create makeshift clinics within several underserved communities and visit the homes of those who are housebound.
We addressed a wide range of both acute (wounds, skin infections, upper respiratory infections, urinary tract infections) and chronic (hypertension, diabetes) health concerns in over 400 patients combined.
We increased access to medications and medical supplies by providing medications, vitamins, and even eyeglasses.
Our group also provided basic health education on nutrition, hygiene, disease management, and disease prevention to help families improve the health of both them and their children.
