First Training of Healthcare Promoters

Lots of exciting things happening here! This past week we had our first 3 day training session for our healthcare promoters. The second half of their training will be another 3 day session at the beginning of May. They were 3 very long, but very exciting days, packed with teaching, hands on practice, presentations/dramas, worship, and much, much more! Altogether we had about 20 healthcare promoters attend, a very diverse group ranging from age 17 to 70′s, and representing approx. 8 villages in Peru and 3 villages in Bolivia.

 

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Scott did the overwhelming majority of the teaching and training (appropriate seeing how he’s the doctor and all) with the help of our dear friend Moises, who came all the way from Boliva to assist Scott with interpreting. Bev and I assisted in assuring that things were being understood, people were staying awake and having fun, and helped make sure that everyone was actively participating. Bev also kindly offered herself up with her awesome anatomy t-shirt as a learning device for the group as well!

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One of the things the healthcare promoters learned during the training was how to check someone’s heart, pulse, and lungs. When it came to the hands on practice with the stethoscope many of the women were a little timid at first. So I stepped up to the plate and offered up my own body as their learning device.

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After a while though they were a little less modest and had a lot of fun listening to one another’s lungs and heart. It was awesome to see their energy, excitement, and desire to learn! We had some great laughs when people struggled to find each other’s pulse, etc…..declaring their patient dead….and then celebrating that they were alive once they finally found it!

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I was officially the tough professor who was responsible for giving them homework each of the 3 nights they were with us. Their homework entailed of practicing using their healthcare books and materials to look up illnesses, treatments, signs that you should seek immediate medical attention, first aid, etc. I would assign the same illness or emergency to about 5 or 6 of them, so that they could work together in the evenings to come up with answers and solutions.

They were told that each group would be responsible for presenting their answers to the rest of the group the next morning. Their first morning back Bev, Scott, and I were absolutely THRILLED when the groups got up and not only shared the information they’d found, but had actually put together short skits, dramas, and presentations! LOVED the creativity, and skits are always a fun and interactive way to teach…we were pumped to see them getting so into it!

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They were all excellent students, taking good notes, using their materials/book, and asking questions. At the end of the 3 days they all took a small exam, with less than 20 questions, in order to get an idea of what they had learned/understood and what we would need to possibly go over again during the next training session. They were able to use their book, materials, and notes to assist them during their test, so we felt that it was a pretty low-key and low-stress exam. They felt differently! What we learned from the experience was that many of them have not had any kind of formal schooling (and thus no formal/informal testing) in decades, and so just test anxiety alone really got to them. In turn, during the next training session we are planning to focus more on practical/hands on exams, where they individually demonstrate to us the skills they’ve learned. In this way we hope to gain a better understanding of their skill levels and knowledge, by eliminating the stress/challenges of the written exams.

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And last but not least, each day we of course made time for worship, singing, and praying. (I became the official drummer girl.) It was neat to be amongst this amazing group of people who not only share our interests in public health, but with whom we also share a common faith. Additionally, it was so great to see such a variety of people come together from two different countries and several different villages in order to achieve a common goal. We saw many new friendships develop amongst the group, and they have even started planning further partnerships amongst their churches, such as youth exchanges and training of pastors….so awesome to see them run with it! Overall a truly wonderful group of individuals, and I’m thoroughly looking forward to our next training with all of them in May! For more pics from our training click on the following link: http://whereintheworldiscammeo.shutterfly.com/970