ACPHS pharmacy students Christina Jung (pictured above, second from left) and Ty Rheaume (above, far right) both dreamed of participating in a medical mission to a developing country since their very young days.
For Rheaume, the desire grew out of his wish to contribute in some area of health care. Jung’s drive to give back to the community spurred her interest; when she researched medical missions, she learned there was a great need for pharmacists to participate.
“So that’s actually how I got into pharmacy,” she said.
Rheaume and Jung had their dreams fulfilled last month, when they participated in ACPHS’ first pharmacy clinical rotation in Guatemala, working under the supervision of Associate Professor Dr. Kate Cabral (above, center). The 10-day trip was the pair’s last rotation before graduation, providing them with a rousing finale to their academic experience.
This was the first year ACPHS offered the rotation through the Office of Experiential Education. Advanced Pharmacy Practice Experiences, or APPEs, cap off pharmacy students’ education. The Guatemala rotation was sparked by the passions of Benjamin and Bernie Graham '71, who have been involved with the Glens Falls Medical Mission for years. (Benjamin Graham is pictured above, second from right.)
This was Dr. Cabral’s third trip to Guatemala with GFMMF and the first time she was able to bring students.
During the trip, a team of 32 volunteers set up a medical clinic in Nueva Santa Rosa, a rural town of about 13,000 people some 70 miles from Guatemala City. The clinic is set up twice a year to provide residents with medical care for chronic diseases and with education to help them care for themselves. Services include a women’s health clinic, internal medicine, pediatrics, psychological counseling, nutrition education, dentistry reading glasses and a pharmacy. Patients lacking basic treatment walked or biked for hours to get there.
The team of three pharmacists, in addition to Jung and Rheaume, worked closely with other providers in a multidisciplinary approach. Everyone helps out wherever they can.
“It’s the true meaning of a team approach,” Cabral said.
Pharmacy students would often handle tasks beyond the scope of a pharmacist in the U.S. Rheaume recalled being asked to help with a patient in the dental clinic.
“I walked over to the patient,” he said. “I thought I was just going to be holding the light. And then he hands me the tools to actually pull the tooth.”
During the mission trip, they saw over 850 unique patients and had over 1,500 clinic visits. Patients came to the clinic with different needs than those encountered in their U.S. rotations. Translators bridged the language barrier, but sometimes, Jung said, they spoke less common dialects and she needed to use body language or drawings to explain how to take medication. Some patients could neither read nor write, nor sign documents; they inked their thumbs to leave a print instead of their signature, and providers often used stickers or color coding to communicate medication education/reminders.
The trip is a 10-day sojourn in a six-week rotation. Dr. Cabral, who maintains a practice at Capital Cardiology Associates, had the students prepare for the trip by reviewing common disease states in the country, studying the medication formulary that includes anti-parasite antibiotics uncommon in the U.S. and honing up on their Spanish.
Jung and Rheaume have also been able to spend some time post-mission with Dr. Cabral at Capital Cardiology Associates, a medical specialty practice in Albany. They have experienced some culture shock in the transition. In contrast to patients in Guatemala, for example, most of their CCA patients have health insurance, running water and access to healthy food.
Both students give the Guatemala rotation high ratings and say they would do it again.
"This was above and beyond and really surpassed my expectation of medical trips," Jung said.