Medical Training & Equipment Donation

On Tuesday evening I attended a community medical education meeting. A doctor and two nurses talked about diabetes care and prevention and blood pressure monitoring. They then demonstrated how to best use portable self-use blood pressure machines. The doctor informed them that portable machines (like you or I can buy at a pharmacy or on Amazon.com) are all different, unlike the continuity of the cuff and stethoscope at the doctor’s office. He informed them not to rotate among different machines, as they are all slightly different. He recommended they take their machine to the doctor, match it to the doctor’s reading so they know how “off” it actually is.

Wednesday is a light day as there’s a Rotary meeting at noon. Given the disruption of the day we choose to give the students the afternoon off to see the city and buy gifts for their parents. 🙂 At the meeting today we presented the Antigua Ambulance service with mobile defibrillators, as they have no defibrillators on any ambulances. Last year we donated some for the clinics (this was funded by last year’s grant but shipped this year after we knew our budget situation).

So far all is going well. I figure that if Jeff Mason’s and my phones don’t ring too much it means our planning was done correctly and the students were prepared for the day (versus when they call Jeff needing power cords because they forgot spares – a typical first day occurrence as they learn quickly).