Diary of a Medical Mission Trip
Diary of a Medical Mission Trip
In the GCU videos “Diary of a Medical Mission Trip”, the medical mission team showed the difficulty times they had to provide efficient and effective medical care. They had many challenges caused by the lack of water and cleanliness. There was also lack of medical supplies, food, and medications. The medical mission team had to see more than 100 patients every day who were waiting outside, in addition to the inpatients (GCU, 2018)
Primary prevention focus on preventing disaster-related deaths and injuries before they occur (APHA, 2020). In addition, illness prevention is an important aspect in this setting. Primarily the health care team must be immunized to prevent hepatitis, mumps, Rubella, pertussis before going to Haiti. Immunizations should also be given to the Haiti population. In addition, the Haiti population must be educated on washing their hands and practicing proper sanitation to prevent diseases. People also must be educated on how to evacuate safely and develop an evacuation plan with the family. In addition, it is essential to have an evacuation kit with necessary supplies (American Red Cross, 2020).
Secondary prevention has the goal to mitigate the health consequences of a disaster by providing education about injury control during cleanup and recovery period (American Public health Association, 2020). This involves treatment and education about the wounds, infections and disaster related illness. Examples seen on the video “Diary of Mission Trip” from GCU (2018) include cleaning and changing dressing from the wounds; treating the patients with IV fluids and antibiotics for infections. In addition, the hospitals in Haiti were overcrowded with minor injury patients and others seriously ill. The innovative examples would be educating people about infection and its prevention; setting up small areas and tents to treat minor injury patients with trained medical staff. It is also necessary to organize and separate the medical supplies in a clean, non-sterile area. Providing care to the injured also address the emotional aspects of trauma.
Tertiary prevention minimizes the effect of a disaster and disability among the already ill patients. It focuses on the long- term requirements and of individuals and community post disaster (APHA, 2020) Medical supplies, medications, diagnostic tools, physicians and medical staff will be needed in this setting. There is an extremely need of surgeons and operating rooms to treat patients with serious illness and injury. According to the video “Diary of a Medical Mission Trip” from GCU (2018), the hospital in Haiti had only two ORs with the anesthesia machine dropped down and one OR was shut down due to leaking. In addition, the new medical team had on ortho surgeon and no anesthetist. Based on this scenario, there is a need of more medical staff including surgeons and anesthetists to assist in saving people’s lives. Furthermore, long term treatment strategies including rehabilitation and families and individuals’ therapy is necessary to assist people to move from the previous capabilities to the highest level of function they can attain (Berman, Snyder & Frandsen, 2016). In order to facilitate the proposed interventions, I would associate the CDC because it has the function of administering a broad program related to surveillance of disease and behaviors that lead to disease and disability (Berman, Snyder & Frandsen, 2016). I would also associate the Red Cross, and other organizations including religious organizations.
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