Students get hands-on healthcare experiences on a global scale
- Nina Barbero
- College of Arts and Sciences
- Contributors: Courtney Dwyer Satkoski, Photos
6 – minute read
A group of Florida Gulf Coast University students returned from their Global Medical Brigades trip to Panama this spring with a newfound appreciation for the amenities they enjoy every day, from clean, running water to over-the-counter medicine.
This year’s brigade of 31 volunteers treated 450 to 500 patients over three clinic days in May. Chapter adviser Courtney Dwyer Satkoski explained that the annual trip provides students hands-on medical experience and encourages them to think outside the box when treating patients.
During this year’s trip, students worked alongside medical professionals and translators at schools in Santa Librada and Nuevo Progreso in the Darien Province, using classrooms as stations for triage, consultation, dentistry, physical therapy, rapid lab testing, data collection or pharmacy. They also distributed hundreds of hygiene packs collected over many months, with shampoo, soap, sunscreen, deodorant, hand sanitizer, toothpaste, toothbrushes and more. These packs supplemented prescription and over-the-counter medications provided through the pharmacy.
“It truly is healthcare in action,” Dwyer Satkoski said. “They’re not reading about it — they’re actually doing it. There’s something that’s humbling about being in 110-degree-heat in full scrubs.”
Maintaining a community presence
While chapter members come from a variety of majors, most do have a medical focus. That includes outgoing president Conner Bapst who graduated this spring with a health science degree and is now working as an emergency room technician.
Bapst expressed his appreciation for the consistency that Global Medical Brigades provides to the communities chapters visit. It’s not a one-and-done humanitarian mission.
“It’s continuous,” he said. “Different universities will visit the same communities again and again. It continues the care there.”
FGCU’s chapter has about 100 members who attend meetings regularly and can help treat patients at regular pop-up clinics in Immokalee and Fort Myers. A smaller group of members participates in the annual international trip, planning travel logistics, fundraising and collecting medical supplies to take along.
Varied healthcare needs
Veronica Rothrock, a biology major and incoming chapter president, noticed significant differences between this year’s clinical patients and those she treated during last year’s trip to Guatemala.
“Different communities have different health needs,” Rothrock said. “In Guatemala, the health issues would be related to obesity and heart issues because of diet. One thing we saw a lot in Panama was skin issues, like skin parasites and infections, because they didn’t have access to clean water.”
Every student participating, regardless of major, is trained in medical basics for the trip. They learn how to take vital signs and measure and accurately convert height and weight. They provide general check-ups, along with treatment for illnesses and chronic conditions such as high blood pressure.
“We saw some hypertensive emergencies where the blood pressure was way above normal limits, even higher than what I’ve seen in the U.S. in the ER,” Bapst said.
The pop-up clinic can provide medication for conditions such as hypertension; however, it can be difficult for patients to receive a refill.
“We do write referrals to the local clinic, but sometimes that can be pretty far away,” Bapst said. “To bridge that gap, Global Brigades has community health workers, people who are in that community, that way there can be a supply in the community.”
Listening to the community
Each day started with students waking up by 7 a.m. to eat breakfast and take the hourlong bus ride to the pop-up clinic. They would then work at a single station until lunchtime before swapping to another station for the rest of the day. At 4 p.m., they would pack up supplies, sanitize their treatment areas and return to the compound for an educational or cultural activity.
“We are walking up mountain sides, we are going down slippery, red clay roads, we are going to houses to ask them what their needs are,” Dwyer Satkoski said. “Students are hearing from the actual community members.”
One day of every trip is dedicated to community research, during which students learn about factors impacting the community’s health, such as whether residents have access to a reliable source of clean water. When the students share the information with Global Medical Brigades, the organization can send in other branches, such as Water Brigades or Engineering Brigades, to help improve the residents’ living conditions.
Students gain confidence from experience
One of Rothrock’s favorite moments on the trip was seeing the gratitude on the faces of the community members on the last day.
“You’re running these clinics in a hectic environment,” she said. “But when it’s over and you truly see everything you’ve done, and you see how these people are so appreciative, it’s the solidifying moment of ‘Wow, this is why we do this.’”
Dwyer Satkoski mused about the joys of watching students become more confident throughout the trip each year.
“A lot of students shine in ways that are unexpected, which I think is one of the best experiences for them,” she said. “Maybe they speak two or three languages, maybe they help with kids and they teach them how to brush their teeth. Students might go in feeling like they are ‘lesser than’ because they don’t have a 4.0 GPA, or they don’t have all the experiences the other students have, but they may go on a trip like this and shine.”