Emma Roope

My friend and I spent 3 weeks volunteering with VIN as part of our medical elective. Were based in a community setting, in Jitpur-Phedi, about 12km from Kathmandu centre. Our host family in the community were so welcoming and made us feel part of the family. This was a great way to learn about the Nepali culture and attempt to improve our very basic Nepali language.
 
We started our work in the Health Post in Tinpiple, where patients come from the surrounding area, some walk a fair distance to get there. We lead the clinic with some of the Nepali medical students translating for us. We saw problems that were much the same as in the UK and together took relevant medical histories, examination and came up with a management plan for each case. We ran 2 of these clinics on our own and attended one with the doctor and one with a paramedic. This was an interesting experience, especially to learn how the medical system works where resources are limited and managing cases through a language barrier.
 
The mobile clinics were run in two of the primary schools in the community and very well attended by many of the children. We ran one with translation from the Nepali medical students and one alongside the doctor. Again this was an interesting experience where we weren’t always sure of the best management, but we learnt how to interact with children despite the language barrier. It was also good to compare sometimes differing ways of treating similar conditions as in the UK, with limited resources.
 
Our other work was spent visiting women’s groups in the community, where we would take their blood pressures, demographics and any medical problems they had. I was amazed that nearly every women we met suffered from back pain! Over the course of our 3 weeks, we saw 115 women and were able to keep a record for the doctor. We gave advice to those with low blood pressure, reassured those with normal and referred those with high blood pressure to the health clinic to seek further medical treatment where necessary.