My Indang RHU Immersion Experience: Day 4 - What's Next?

    Today marked our fourth day of immersion at the Indang Rural Health Unit. As set from yesterday onward, we first-year students of Cavite State University's Doctor of Medicine program were assigned to the registration area of the RHU to register patients, get their chief complain and symptoms, in addition to getting their vital signs. Though the rain started not too harsh earlier in the week, today it really started to feel like its leading to a storm. The rain was really strong in the morning, though that did not stop us from arriving on time. Though there was slight leaking in certain parts of the hospital, the inside of the RHU managed to stay somewhat dry despite the weather. The ones who were really inconvenienced by the strong rain were the patients who arrived without umbrellas, as some of them got soaked, and some of them didn't have umbrellas to use to go home after they had their consultations. Today, I finally got the hang of taking vital signs in a timely manner when there are many patients flooding the registration area. Though taking their weight, height, temperature, and using the pulse oximeter were all relatively straightforward, when it came to taking their blood pressures, some issues started to arise. We started to have some patients with really high blood pressures like 160/100 mmHg, which we needed to take multiple times from them to make sure that it is actually that high, and some had arms that were too big for the cuff of the sphygmomanometer. That was where I learned that in such cases, you would need to hold the cuff together using one of your hands while taking their blood pressure. Though it was something as simple as  that, that moment stuck with me as something that represents the small things that we need to do to make do with what we have in places with limited resources, such as rural health units. This made me realize that as a doctor, I need to practice being practical in my problem-solving, because not everything.

    Doing nothing but taking the patients' vital signs and chief complaints really helped speed up the process of getting used to the flow of things, which made the day go by quite fast because I was not really checking the time. We were told by our supervisor, Dr. Richard, that we were to prepare for health teaching to two barangays: Guyam Malaki and Guyam Munti. We will be split into two groups with 8 students each, with one group assigned to Guyam Malaki and the other to Guyam Munti. One group will conduct the teaching in the morning, and the other in the afternoon, so that half of us will be present in the RHU while the other half does their respective health teaching. Keeping in mind this goal, I went home to study up on the topics we'll be teaching and prepare myself for tomorrow.

Location: 6V2F+483, J. Dimabiling Street, Indang, Cavite, Philippines

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