Costa Rica 

MEDICAL AID TRIP

Gator Alliance for World Health

Gator Alliance for World Health is a student organization at the University of Florida.  In 2016, we raised money and traveled to Costa Rica to serve in the rural area's surrounding San Jose.  We volunteered through Maximo Nivel, an organization that manages medical aid in Costa Rica, Guatemala and Peru.  I utilized my health education skills by teaching patients the health education materials, taking needs assessments and vitals, and teaching hygiene and prenatal care.  We stayed with a host family in the city of San Jose.  Our host family cooked most of our meals and engaged us in conversational Spanish. 

• Assisted Living Facility - We helped nurses with feeding patients and learned how to tube feed, ensuring the entry of the tube into the body was clean and showed no signs of infection.  Vitals were taken and recorded in patients medical charts.  We provided glucose testing and administered daily medication under physician supervision.  

• Orphanage - Over 40 children were provided with vitamins to take home.  Our focus in this location was ensuring safe and healthy hygiene practices.  Our team provided instruction for hand-washing and teaching how germs are spread.  Visual aids were utilized due to age of the population and to supplement language barriers.  We taught dental hygiene for proper brushing and flossing and each child received toothbrushes, toothpaste and floss.  Additionally, we engaged in crafts and soccer with the children. 

• Medical Campaign -  We spent two days operating a medical campaign out of a church in a rural impoverished village.  The locals in this community cannot afford healthcare until the medical campaigns arrive.  We took vitals using only Spanish communication, provided information for personal hygiene and dental hygiene and ensured all patients left with updated medical records and vitamins. Some children came and we engaged them in board games and provided them with full checkups and gave them their paperwork to take home. Prenatal care and prenatal vitamins were provided for pregnant women.