By Sandi Stroot

As I traveled to Canete , Peru , I think about all of the typical things that might worry a new team member. Having done a lot of homework about traveling to a particular region, I knew that I would be with experienced people, even though I had never met any of them before. With that in mind, a suitcase of supplies and a positive attitude, I headed out to the unknown.

As an experienced Registered Nurse, I knew that I would be fine when we actually started seeing patients. It is overwhelming on the first day to walk into the crowd of hundreds of people waiting for medical care. It took a huge effort by the MWI team to get set up and running. There is no single person, only a team.

We saw a multitude of afflictions. What a humbling experience as a nurse to go back to the fundamentals of patient assessment with no lab test availability. I was amazed at the number of people that had arthritic knees and bad backs that are still working hard on farms. Ibuprofen and Tylenol were like gold to them. Patient teaching takes on a completely new aspect because resting the affected area is just not a possibility and ice is often not available. Being organized in the triage area and having a good interpreter is essential.

As medical professional who is considering this experience, they must prepare for a demanding physical environment. Not only are the areas remote and the work challenging, but they also must be prepared mentally and emotionally for the experience. Only a team attitude will work and flexibility is the key to your success. I found it extremely beneficial to meet with other team members at the end of the day to discuss ideas to make things work more efficiently. It is important to keep foremost in your mind the lack of availability of advanced healthcare and affordable medications in these regions. An example of this is a woman diagnosed with hypertension with the medicine prescribed costing more for one pill than she makes in a month. After talking with her, I found out that she often eats fish and meats that she cures with salt. From this, I was able to instruct her on a low sodium diet and she was thrilled to have this new information, not knowing before that salt affect blood pressure.

In closing, I must add that I loved the beautiful spirit of the people we met on this MWI mission, it may not be for every one but for those that feel this passion, it is a great experience, I am looking forward to traveling with this organization again soon.