This summer, we traveled to Quito, Ecuador for 4 weeks to participate in the Child Family Health International’s Andean Health Program. The trip included about 35 hours of Spanish classes, Ecuadorian culture classes, sessions about the healthcare system, and sessions about problems that need to be addressed in the health care system. Health care and medication is free for everyone in Ecuador!! The physicians are paid very little (around $800/month) to work in the public clinics from 8am-noon.
We also spent 3 weeks in various clinics throughout Quito. The first week we spent with Dr. Marquez in La Maternidad, the largest women’s health hospital in the country, a.k.a. the “baby factory.” With women lined up in the ‘dilatacion’ room waiting to move into the ‘parto’ room to deliver, it was definitely an interesting experience. There is no privacy, very little confidentiality, and no family allowed due to limited space. Our second week was spent at a pediatrician’s office and we found that everyone has to be there before 8 am to get their blood pressure, weight, and height taken all at once before the physician sees any patients (i.e. no nurses). Our final week was spent in the south of Quito at an internal medicine clinic. This clinic was more organized and more similar to a clinic in the United States. Our preceptor was also teaching the “post-grados” or residents and it was very interesting to listen to their presentations about things like diabetes drugs or the mechanism of production of thyroid hormone. Our clinic experiences were overall very interesting, although we did not get to interact with patients as much as we had wanted due to limited time available with each patient.
We also had quite a bit of fun traveling to other cities on the weekends and in the afternoons traveling around Quito. We took a dip in the hot springs in Banos, zip-lined through the cloud forest of Mindo, shopped the artisan market in Otavalo, stood on the Equator (where Ecuador gets its name!), and snorkeled with sea lions in las Islas Galapagos!
The trip was fairly expensive (about $3000 after airfare and before extra trips; weekend trips were cheap, except for the Galapagos) and the clinical experience could have been better if we were permitted to have more time with the patients. We did give them feedback about this and it was suggested that we have time to interview the patients before they see the physician and we feel this would make the experience better. Ultimately, we had a great experience through this program. We learned a lot about the culture, people, and city of Quito.
Ciao!
Sam Ulmer y Jenn Bazemore