Martine Dufresne uncensored
 
1)Currently AMHE Medical relief missions are 1-2 week rotations from Saturday to Saturday.  Flights are now available directly into Port au Prince.  Lodging is at an orphanage at Delmas 75 called The village. Another lodging location will be at the Quisqueya secondary school in Delmas. There will be a minimal fee for accommodation $75.00 US for the week. If you decide to go please register with the state department at  www.travel.state.gov.  Specifics are given via conference call two days before departure. To register please go to www.amhe.org.  

2) Report of Nurse Martine Dufresne RN,
 
Writing a report on my week in Haiti has been a challenge by itself.  Not because I didn’t have anything to say but because my emotions got in the way of an objective testimony.  After a week of processing I am ready to separate them although taking about health conditions at the General Hospital cannot be totally dispassionate.  I was assigned to the Internal Medicine unit.  It is a 50 to 60 patients unit.  Beside the fact that males and female share the ward, there is no privacy for any patients, no curtain separates the beds and the care I give to patient in bed 1 can be witnessed by the other patients and their family.   At first it made me a little uncomfortable so I tried when giving private care to provide as much privacy as possible.  Although this situation certainly violates the Privacy Act in the USA, I don’t think there is such policy in Haiti and the patients didn’t appear to be overly concerned.   They were very grateful by the care I provided and I was humbled by their show of gratitude.  However, the situation that upset me the most was the absence of water on the unit. I don’t understand how a University Hospital in charge of promoting good health habits cannot provide water for the patients and the staff.  I used a large amount of hand sanitizer but the patients depended on their family to bring them water.  It is against my professional ethic to accept this situation without condemning it.  Hand washing is the first step to prevent infection and control germ propagation in any country.  The earthquake made this precaution even more important.  The sanitary conditions at the hospital should be addressed as a priority as well as educating the staff on infection control.  My second challenge was the medication issue.    The nurse gives each patient his medication in a plastic bag taped to the bed and asks the patient to take the pills as they are ordered by the doctor then write on the patient’s record that he or she took their meds as prescribed.  To me it is a very unsafe practice but it seems it is working for everybody involved.  The most taxing situation I found myself in was when I was going to change a peg tube dressing; I saw ants coming out of the stomach around the tube and crawling on the patient’s body and bedding.  Fortunately the patient never realized that.  The peg tube made me aware that although the hospital gives a small breakfast and a hot lunch to every patient without regard to any special needs there is no provision for the patient unable to eat regular food.  If the patient does not have family he does not get food.  So there is a need for enteral food like Isocal, 2 cal, ensure etc.  There are very few bed pans and urinals and very little linen to change the beds.  Bed sheets made of fabric that the families can wash and reuse would be very useful.  The list of needed things is endless but these are the ones that I noticed were missing the most to make the patients stay a little more comfortable. 
 
 I take this opportunity to thank my teammates.  By sharing your treats, jokes and different experiences you enriched my life and made this stay a really meaningful one that I am ready to repeat.