Post from Devon...

The second leg of my time in San Pancho has continued to nurture personal growth but this post will describe more of my clinical growth. We completed 1 half day and 4 full days of clinical practice in the local hospital. This experience offered us difficult client classifications and often additional circumstances: limited equipment, compromised personal positioning and warm conditions. While myself and the other students have taken all of these differences from home in stride, it is our clients that have truly shown patience and accommodation. Every single client I have had the pleasure of working with here has endured  in-depth instrumentation for 4 hours in a less than comfortable makeshift dental chair, yet they all walked away being grateful and appreciative. The positive outlook they provide is so heartwarming and encouraging to me.

Something Ada asked that we focus on for the last couple of days of clinic in the hospital was thorough self care and explanation of the disease process to the client. She reminded us not to give the simplified version just because it was going to be translated to our clients. I found myself looking back on last semester and seeing that possibly my explanation of care may have started to become abbreviated since I was often explaining the same process or self care time and time again. Ada's reminder was a great push for me to ensure I am giving a complete education to each client every time.

One experience I had during our clinic time here was while providing self care for a client in their 50's. Through a translator, I asked if flossing was part of his self care routine daily and he said no because he didn't know how to. This particular client had never had the opportunity to be educated on thorough self care. Reflecting on this particular moment made me stop and rethink how I was educating my clients on self care. Here they are eager to learn because it is often the first time someone has offered to educate them. Compare that to clients back home who know how to floss but choose not to. This has started me thinking about new ways to present self care education to clients back home so that they want to make it a part of their daily routine. I haven't figured it out quite yet but the goal is to try and create that same eagerness that the clients here have. 

Tomorrow we start another series of clinic days and I am excited to see what I experience then.