This week has been filled with many activities, thank
goodness otherwise we'd waste our time here. The driving, many tasks (some I am
unsure if we did correctly or not) and planning for the next day have begun to
take their toll. This is not to say that I didn't learn from all the
experiences, just that the energy may have been lacking slightly compared to
what it usually is.
The mobile clinic was such a good experience for me. It
forms such a necessary and important part of the community, it allows people to
not have to have to spend unnecessary money on transport, to miss work the
whole day to collect their medication. It allows for detection of problems or
prevention of worsening of disease. The people and the sisters know each other,
which makes it easier to report/confide with health problems.
The sisters need nutritional knowledge so they can relay the
information to their patients with confidence. I think there should be shelves
in the mobile clinic(there is space) to allow the sisters to have pamphlets or
recipes available for their patients. It is unfair to the patients to only receive
nutritional advise when there are students available, as their diet can change
so much of what their disease is, it can improve their quality of life and
probably increase their life span. It's especially essential to give care
givers( not necessarily the mothers, as they are working most of the time, but
this is not to say they don't need the information) of children the correct
nutritional information so that these children, often FAS children, can grow
and develop optimally so that they are able to function to the best of their
ability. The fact that a lot of children are FAS shows us how important
promotion is to mothers.
When discussing the type of patients in these areas an
average of 2% have HIV(which's quite good, considering in general how many
people are affected by HIV/AIDs), many people have TB and then the biggest
problem is the non-communicable diseases. With TB our role is very important in
managing the patients side effects from the medication, by doing this we will
hopefully decrease the amount of individuals that stop using the medication
because of the side effects. As mentioned above the high blood pressure,
diabetes etcs are the biggest problem and also where our role is of the utmost
importance as we can prevent these from worsening, we can make enable patients
the ability to have control over their health thus decreasing their dependence
on only medication. This would mean that we need to educate the care givers to
give the correct complementary feeding so that childhood feeding doesn't their
later life negatively ie Diabetes, cardio/obesity. We should provide the
sisters with the correct nutrition knowledge so that when they have time to
give advise they can. It would probably be a good idea to stop giving the children
sweets after their visit, but I know that that is to make them excited to see
the clinic and not scared to come because of the injections.
This was a lovely experience where I got to practice my
Afrikaans quite a bit- winning. It's important that students take recipes(more
then 10), handouts(a variety of these, as even if it is chronic day, one could
still see care givers and therefore give information to them), smiles,
Afrikaans and excitement. It would be a suggestion to possibly have a
"Mobile clinic" file.
I enjoyed our second rehab visit as much as I enjoyed the
1st one, but with less nerves. The consultations we are able to perform with
the patients are so valuable to us and to the patients. We both grow from them
and learn from each other. We are also very privileged to be able to relay our
consultations back to the staff that work there, this creates an interaction
that we benefit from as well. The /value knowledge that we are able to provide
staff and patients with can have a huge impact on their treatment. It can help
influence their quality of life as well as form a stress/ behavior outlet(as
my one patient is going to do when they leave rehab). I think that we are
another ear to speak to is also beneficial for their "mind healing".
To have motivation, interest and enthusiasm is essential in these consultations.
To assess each patient and what path is necessary to take with them, what language
you use(in terms of vocabulary), what information you can give, how much
information you can give, as you can see there is so much to consider to ensure
that that 1 consultation is something they will take with them after their 5
weeks, something that will help them grow into the person they were meant to
be. With this being said I think that the feedback to the rehab (as an
institute)is essential as well so that they are able to make changes in the
menus, water "points" and possibly even including
"nutrition" sessions in their 5 week stay.
The presentation we did with a group of 42
"students" started off rockily as we had projector issues. This meant
that while we tried to fix it the students became quite restless which I think
lead to the decrease in their attention span once we began. Our presentation
included the effects of sugar, how to have a balanced lunch box and how to be
mindful of what you eat. We could see that some students were very eager to
learn and were quite involved in the presentation while others weren't too
interested and I think they may have even taken a nap. However, I
believe(strongly) that no matter how much information they walk away with(that
they will actually remember), the seed is planted in their minds, the seed of
healthy nutrition. Which will hopefully begin to grow when they see things we taught
them in their day to day activities, eg seeing a coke and remembering " oh
wait I shouldn't drink that because it has a lot of sugar in it and that is bad
for my body". They don't have to remember why it was bad, but if they remember
that it's bad that's good enough. I think it would have been beneficial to them
if we had given them a handout, or if we could have made the slides more
interactive(more questions or possibly a type of game).
This week has been about learning how to control my emotions
professionally. Not because of the activities we did but what it involved in
the time leading up to the activities.
"What counts in life is not the mere fact that we have
lived. It is what difference we have made to the lives of others that will
determine the significance of the life we lead."
Nelson Mandela
Howzit Week 6
