Orphanage Outreach

(View Health Corps Medical Clinic/Public Health Education Slideshow)

Planned Medical Clinics 2012:

• January 7-14

Scheduling Additional Clinic Weeks:
Additional medical clinics (outside of the planned dates) can be scheduled provided you have a minimum group size of twenty total adult volunteers, with a minimum of four prescribers including two physicians. All volunteer registrations, total program donation, and  flight information are due 60 days prior to the trip. 

Location:
We will be working in the northwest part of the Dominican Republic.  Our focus will be on the poorest communities in the area, including the "batey communities", banana worker communities with limited access to health care. 

Week's Overview:
Saturday: Fly into Santiago airport; be picked up by Outreach360 bus
Sunday: Orientation, prep, set-up
Monday-Thursday: Clinic days
Friday: Culture and relax - visit the market at the Haiti/Dominican border, lunch at restaurant, afternoon at national park beach
Saturday:Fly home

Clinic Overview:
The clinics will be held in different rural locations each day, possibly in a small clinic building but more likely in a school or church or even an open-air tin-roofed disco. A team will include a minimum of two physicians. Physician's assistants and nurse practitioners will also be diagnosing patients. Nurses will assist the physician/PA teams as available and as needed. Nurses will also be helping to triage, to manage the pharmacy, and to do health screenings. 

Eligible Volunteers:
Physicians, nurses, physician's assistants, pharmacists, and other health professionals are needed. Immediate family members of medical professionals are eligible to participate in the clinics. Students enrolled in a degree program leading to a certification (medical school, nursing school, etc) are invited to participate. Student groups will need to have a faculty member accompany the group to participate in the clinic.  Pre-med students will be teaching health education classes, but not as part of the clinic. 

Dominican Affiliation:
We'll be working with Dr. Miguel Garcia Tatis, a long-time local physician from the Monte Cristi area. Dr. Garcia is a key community leader, and has formerly been the provincial director of public health and the hospital director. Dr. Garcia currently works in the hospital in the mornings, and for the banana cooperative "Banelino" in the afternoons. If we are working in additional areas, we will have a similar local Dominican affiliation. 

Program Donation:
Clinic volunteers will be responsible for the standard minimum program donation described in the Volunteer Guide here.  All scholarships will apply to clinic volunteers. 

Medicines/Supplies:
We are preparing a specific and limited list of needed medicines and supplies, based on our experience in the 2011 clinics. We invite people to donate these specific items. Additional units of these items will be purchased in the states and brought to the Dominican Republic; other items will be purchased in the Dominican Republic ahead of time and as needed. 

We request that you not solicit or accept donations different from those listed - additional and excessive donated supplies require additional paperwork and approvals, additional storage and transportation, and complicate the operation of the clinic pharmacy. 

All donated medicines and supplies to be brought to the Dominican Republic need to be documented in a specific spreadsheet and provided to Outreach360 by November 1st, 2011. 

Medicines and Supplies will be purchased from volunteer funds raised above the minimum program donation.  There are no funds for medicines and supplies built into the minimum program donation. 

Living Facilities:
We will be living in simple but comfortable facilities at the orphanage or the Outreach360 English Institute. Facilities can be compared to summer camp facilities-bunk beds, good toilets/showers, buffet dining.  Additional Info.