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Nicaraguan trip a time to teach, and learnRoger Lindholm, MD, a family practice physician at the New Ulm Medical Center, put his Spanish-speaking abilities to the test in January when he participated in a volunteer trip to Jalapa, Nicaragua. The trip, organized by ISLA (Interfaith Services to Latin America) in cooperation with St. Olaf College in Northfield, MN., included several graduates and 10 premedical students from St. Olaf as part of a January interim abroad. During their 11-day trip they went door to door in rural communities near Jalapa surveying residents there concerning their health care issues and needs. Prior to travel the students spent time observing the mentors here in Minnesota in their everyday practice. “We didn’t treat any patients while we were in Nicaragua,” Lindholm explained. “Our purpose was to learn what health problems the people in the communities faced, what resources were available to meet the needs, and to consider what ways the assets that already existed could be utilized to help address health care problems more effectively. It became quite clear that the major gains to be made were in the areas of public health, such as clean water, sanitation and basic education regarding infectious diseases.” The data collected during the survey is being analyzed as part of a graduate student project at the University of Minnesota. The results will be used by ISLA and the Ministry of Health in Nicaragua to better plan programs to improve the health status of those living in the region. Nicaragua is considered to be one of the poorest countries in the Western hemisphere, according to Lindholm. Jalapa is a town of about 10,000 people that is the political and medical center for a rural region of about 80,000 in Northern Nicaragua. “The families we interviewed typically lived on a piece of land that is about a fourth of an acre in size or smaller. The kids play on the same soil amongst the dogs, the pigs and the chickens,” Lindholm said. “Because the doors are kept open for ventilation, sometimes the pigs make their way into the house. In this setting, sanitation and other basic public health measures are much more important than building a modern medical facility.” There were other situations in which the need for basic health education was apparent. “For example, one woman we interviewed had rheumatic heart disease, a disabling and life-threatening condition,” Lindholm said. “This costly condition is completely preventable with penicillin, one of the cheapest drugs available. One needs to know when to seek treatment for the symptoms of strep throat, which include sore throat and fever in the absence of an obvious cold.” Access to healthcare is also a major issue for the people surrounding Jalapa. One family told of walking an hour and a half to Jalapa to the government clinic seeking care for their child who had wheezing, cough and difficulty breathing. When they arrived, they were told that the clinic schedule was full and they couldn’t be seen – so the child had to walk home again, and nothing was resolved for them. “One hopeful aspect was that the Nicaraguan government seemed to have an effective immunization program in place,” Lindholm said. When asked, every household quickly brought out their immunization cards for the children, and they were almost always fully complete. One community had a system in place to send volunteers out to find a child when an immunization appointment was missed. Dr. Lindholm’s interest in learning Spanish started in 1991 when he was caring for a Hispanic woman in the Emergency Department. “She had abdominal pain, and the assessment was very difficult, as the only word I understood was dolor (the Spanish word for pain), and there wasn’t an interpreter available at that time,” Lindholm said. “I have been gradually learning ever since. In 1999 our family spent one month in a language school in Antigua, Guatemala, but I have probably learned more from communicating with my patients than in any other way.” It is not uncommon for Dr. Lindholm to see two or three Spanish-speaking patients during a clinic day. “I enjoy the variety this brings to my daily work,” he said. During his trip to Nicaragua, translators were present during all interactions with the residents the team was surveying. “However,” he stated. “It was a fun challenge to be speaking Spanish in a different context – public health, politics and education verses the usual vocabulary of specific symptoms and medical treatments.” For Lindholm, his passion for volunteering started long ago. “My wife and I were in the Lutheran Volunteer Corps in Washington, D.C. for a year after college. Our experiences and the leaders of the program had a major impact on how we saw the world.” The same was true, he said, of two volunteer experiences during which his family traveled to the San Lucas Mission in Guatemala, where they were deeply affected by the work of the mission, and the words of Father Greg Schaeffer. Lindholm hopes to return to Jalapa next January to participate in another St. Olaf interim program. “Visiting another culture, especially a country like Nicaragua, leads to personal reflection – about how you live, what you value, and what you pursue in life,” Lindholm said. “There’s much we can learn from people who are less concerned about ‘busy-ness,’ and are more focused on relationships. I enjoyed watching the students as they went through this experience,” he said. “About half of them had never been in a place similar to this, so it was exciting to listen to their thoughts progress as the days passed. Certain experiences in life act as a touchstone for how you see the world and how you find your place in it. This was that kind of experience for them. It was great to be part of that process.” |
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New Ulm Medical Center
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