Microscopes and staining kits and visits, oh my!
Today was a very productive day! Saturdays are the only day when all of the clinic’s staff comes into work, including a lab technician, obstetrician, dentist, nurse and physician, and is generally the busiest day for the clinic. Because last Saturday we went out into a nearby community to observe and help with an experimental canola harvest, this was our first time to truly experience the clinic in full swing.
We were able to talk to the lab technician this morning when she didn’t have any patients and show her the Global Focus Microscope as well as the TB and malaria field staining kit. She was very enthusiastic about both! She really liked that the Global Focus was capable of fluorescent microscopy, and told us that the current microscope in the clinic is only capable of bright field and if she needed to use a fluorescence microscope she had to wait to use one at a large institute in Quito (about 1.5 hour drive from here).
She was especially excited about the prospect of using the staining kit and microscope on outreach trips into surrounding communities to test for TB. Right now if they want to test someone for TB they either take the sputum samples back to the clinic or the patient has to come into the clinic. Nicolas mentioned the other day that some of the communities this clinic serves are as much as a 3 hour trip away, so it’s easy to see how being able to test for TB in the field, and thus cutting down on how many trips someone has to make to the clinic, would be very advantageous!
Penni, Claire and Meredith also paid a visit to the clinic today. We were able to sit in on them interviewing the staff here regarding the Lab in a Backpack that the clinic received last year, and may be conducting some interviews at other clinics ourselves. It was great to learn about the work they’ll be doing while they’re in Ecuador, and get to show them around the clinic a little.
Today also marks the half-way point in our internship. It’s hard to believe we only have 4 weeks left, but I’m looking forward to all we’ll be able to accomplish in that time!