Back to Haiti, this time to train…..

This past August, another team sponsored by Long Island University (School of Nursing) went back to Haiti. We were a team of 15 that included: Nurse Practitioners, Nurses, Pharmacists a Physicians Assistant and a Nursing student. For 6 of us this was our second trip and some of us went mainly to  provide training and education to the providers and staff of the 3 clinics. I myself did not work in the clinic at all this time – just went to teach. Although this second trip back was not as exciting because I did not have an opportunity to provide patient care – it was so very necessary! The type of training we provided was never done with this group before. It gave us an opportunity to actually sit down and talk about the issues in the 3 clinics as well as provided very important information and training to the permanent staff. As a pharmacist I was able to talk about the many issues related to pharmacy services such as medication inventory, maximizing pharmacy resources, patient education, etc. As volunteers it feels good to go to a place like Haiti and provide “good care” as best as we can for a week or two. However, 3 days training those that see patients on an every day basis has much more of an impact and as a result helps so many more people!

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