¡Qué chiva!

This week started out with an exciting trip to Arenal Volcano in La Fortuna, about 3 hours Northeast of San Jose. Our group got a fun little personal tour since it was just the 8 of us in the tour van. We took control of the aux and blasted 2010 throwbacks for most of the ride. La Fortuna was a very touristy area, much more than San Jose. The prices in certain souvenir shops were in dollars and not colones which I thought was interesting. We stopped at La Choza de Laurel (no, Laurel does not own the place) for a delicious Costa Rican lunch, fresh pineapple juice, ice cream, and fresh coffee to top it all off. Even though we did not get the chance to hike the volcano, like we all wanted to, we got a beautiful view of it from afar. Just some quick little advice for everyone booking tours: the description of the tour and the tour might not always be the same sooo always call and ask. Anyways, we then took a dip in the mineral-filled water at the Bali Hot Springs resort, sipped on some Piña Coladas, and soaked in the sun and the rain (but mostly just the rain). After a bumpy ride back, I prepared for the needs-finding workshop by watching a documentary called “To Err is Human” which focuses on the urgency of reducing the number of medical errors in the field of medicine, and follows people who suffered because of misdiagnosis of life-threatening diseases.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I did not really know what to expect going into the needs-finding workshop, but it turned out to be a very immersive experience. We got a chance to visit Clinica Biblica downtown on Sunday and Clinica Biblica Santa Ana on Monday to shadow different departments of the hospital such as Radiology, Pharmacy, ER, and Microbiology Lab. We paid special attention to procedures that seemed stressful, general patient flow, outdated equipment, organization, dogma situations, inconveniences, inefficiencies, and any other notable observations that can be translated to a clinical need. It was interesting to note the vast differences between the Santa Ana and Downtown locations. Santa Ana seemed a bit more new and relaxed while the downtown location seemed to be mostly busy and with older equipment.  Most of the doctors did not speak English but thanks to Andres (a tico in our group) who translated everything, Raniyah, Asma, Laurel, and I seemed a little less lost. The pharmacy on the first day was insanely busy, the pharmacist barely had time to give us a tour of the place, but we got to see the MRI machine in the radiology department, and also see an x-ray scan in action at Santa Ana. The most interesting part of the microbiology lab was the cell counter which I wish our lab had during my undergraduate research years, my life would have been much easier. During debriefing on Sunday, we noticed that most needs revolved around the issue of manual documentation, sanitization, organization, lack of procedures, and outdated equipment. We went through the process of translating an observation to a need statement by first clustering our observations into different categories, writing 1 statement for each of the categories, picking the best one, writing a broader and a narrower statement from the original statement, and then figuring out additional questions/resources we need to target. The needs-finding was definitely a lot less intensive than the medical innovation Bootcamp, and I loved how immersive it was!

The completion of the needs-finding workshop also marked the finale of our precious time at Hotel 1492 and also the last time all eight of us would be together this summer. We sadly said goodbye to Asma & Kaira as they flew back to the states, and Haruto & Vanessa as they embarked on their journey to Don Franciso. It was time for the next chapter of Costa Rica: Meditek and Hotel Selina. 

Katy and I were excited but a little unsure of what to expect from our internship, but our first day was very eventful! Our internship consists of traveling to different hospitals and medical device companies to install and repair broken medical equipment with field engineers. A huge perk is the different neighborhoods, hospitals, and companies we will get to see and work in. At Meditek, we met Pablo Sanchez, our supervisor, who gave us a little introduction to Meditek, introduced our duties, and prepared us for the summer. We dove right in on our first day by visiting Hospital Mexico with Jairy, Pablito, and Raquel (field engineers) to fix broken incubators and EKG machines. We performed corrective maintenance by replacing a broken fan inside the incubator and also calibrating the incubator. Since the work was done in the NICU, we got to see all the cute little babies. It was also interesting to note the vast differences between public hospitals such as Hospital Mexico and private hospitals such as Clinica Biblica. Public hospitals are much larger and a lot more chaotic than private ones. Hospital Mexico seemed more equipped to handle a large group of emergency patients because it had a bigger emergency department, but we still saw many patients waiting for help in the waiting area. The field engineers gave us some insight into the differences and were answering our million questions on Costa Rica, Spanish words, and medical devices. Most of the conversation that takes place is in English but a good chunk is also in Spanish which is a perfect chance for me to learn some basic Spanish pero es muy difícil. A phrase that I did learn though from the field engineers was “¡Qué chiva!”. It is a phrase that literally translates to “what a goat” but is said when a great achievement is accomplished or something is very impressive. I heard and said Qué chiva in a day more times than I heard and said “Pura Vida” during this whole trip. I should have collected 1000 colones for every time one of us said ¡Qué chiva! during our shift. Today, Katy and I went to Punta Arenas with Luis (field engineer) to look at a broken x-ray machine at Hospital Monseñor Sanabria. We also got to look at the beach while we were there, but it was very dirty (even worse than Jaco). However, we did get to try a famous Punta Arenas desert: Churchill. It was basically a red snowcone, condensed milk, powdered milk, and vanilla ice cream. If you think that sounds delicious, you are incorrect. I did not enjoy the combination of all of those items, but it is a pretty famous dessert that is worth a try so you can form your own opinion.

 

 

 

 

 

Hotel Selina has been treating us nicely. Katy, Laurel, Raniyah, and I made our room very cozy and comfortable. We also started using the community kitchen to cook dinner every night. So far, we visited the central market to buy groceries to make tacos and guac. Since it was our first time, we definitely overpaid because our bargaining skills have still not been perfected, but we cooked a delicious meal so oh well. Using most of the leftovers, we also made some quesadillas and salsa for our dinner the next day. We plan on replacing cheese and beans with pasta and garlic bread tonight so let’s see how that turns out!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We have had a successful couple of days cooking our own food and meeting amazing people at Meditek. I am curious to see what our dinner menu looks like for the next 2 months and what adventures we take on with Meditek. Regardless of what it may be, I am sure the experiences will be worth saying Qué chiva to!

See ya next week,

Jhalak M.