Directing Our Thoughts and Guiding Questions

For those of you just joining our blog, welcome.  The student pharmacists of the rotation are hard at work on becoming disease state experts and creating resources for a topic arrange that they chose/was assigned.  I've seen such amazing innovations in this group and can't wait to see the final products.

We've had patient specific ideas to offering a continuing education program for professional to live examples of how to's to using resources around you.  I'm learning just as much as I am teaching.

I asked the group to summarize questions for health providers and have compiled a list.  Amazingly enough - no two student pharmacists out of the eight so far (Drake students join us next Monday) had the same question.  It just goes to show you how different each of our minds work.

Provider Directed Questions

1. What are the main disease states you encounter in Dominica?
2.  What resources do you have available and what resources would be beneficial?
3.  What approaches do you utilize if resources are limited?
4. How much does herbal medicine affect/enhance your daily practice?
5.  What would you like to see changed in order to help better the medical/pharmacy practices in Dominica?
6. How did you get involved in this profession?
7. What brought you to the island of Dominica (if you were from another area) or what made you want to stay in Dominica (if you were from the area)?
8.   What is the most challenging aspect of your job?
9. What is the most rewarding aspect? 
10. If you could give other healthcare providers one piece of advice, what would it be?
11. How do patients pay for medications, is there any type of insurance system like in the United States?
12. Do you use a lot of the same medications as in United States?
13. Are patients given prescriptions to go get medications?
14. What are the emergency services like in the country?
15.  How many pharmacists work in the country and what is the training process to become a pharmacist in Dominica?
16. Have you seen an outbreak of Dengue Fever/ any other tropical disease in this area?
17. What prevention methods have been used to decrease the transmission of tropical diseases?
18. What criteria do you use to triage patients?
19. Is there a way to report notable diseases (e.g. STDs, Dengue Fever)?
20. Has there been Federal or parish support against the eradication of preventable diseases?
21. Are there any societal, familial, or religious views that influence treatment of patients?
22. How long is the average response from injury or sudden illness to pre-hospital care?
23. What mechanisms are in place for medical emergencies?
24. What is the primary focus of a nurse or physician in a rural health clinic?
25. What is the hierarchy of healthcare in Dominica?

Patient Directed Questions

1.  Are there any social or any other conditions about a patient that I should be aware of? 
2. Does the patient have any cultural or religious beliefs that may impact their health beliefs?
3. What herbal or “bush” medicine is the patient (or you) taking at home?
4. What is the patient (or your) chief complaint (or the reason that you are seeking health care)?
5.   How does healthcare in Dominica differ from other countries?
6. What roles do nurses or doctors have in your country?

I hope that if you are out there reading this that you are thinking about positive changes that you can make in your community.  Hopefully, we'll be able to post answers to our questions as we spend our time away.

Best wishes always-
Dr. A