Friday, July 31, 2009
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Hola
All is well in Ensenada. Today, we surveyed around 200 women in local clinics and hospitals. The questionnaire we designed we designed in a manner that will "hopefully" give us a better understanding of the gaps in education pertaining to cervical cancer. Yesterday was the most amazing part of the trip so far. I was able to sit in on a birth, perform two vaginal examinations to determine cervix dilation and assist in performing two ultrasounds. Unfortunately, I woke up with a chest cold yesterday and haven't felt well since. However, I do not plan on letting a little cold get me down. Tomorrow we will be presenting our findings from the survey to local government officials. Stay tuned to find out what we have learned about the health disparities in Ensenada.
Until then Adios.
Ashley Scitern
Monday, July 27, 2009
First day in Ensenada, Baja California Mexico
Today was my first official day in Ensenada, Baja California. A group of us arrived this last Friday, and have been working very closely with the medical students from the Xochicalco University. Our group is comprised of three MPH student from the Fred Hutchinson University in Seattle, Washington, and four students from New Mexico State University in Las Cruces, New Mexico. Tomorrow we will be visiting local clinics to observe how the health care system works in Mexico. We will also be formulating a few questions based on the experiences we will have in the local clinics to design a questionnaire as part of a public health intervention. We will survey around 100 locals and then analyze the data. The goal of our survey is to obtain information pertaining to cervical cancer in Mexican women and generally to have a better understanding of the common perceptions, myths, and or utilization of the "pap smear" in detecting HPV as well as cervical cancer in local Hispanic women. Stay tuned to find out how the visit to the local clinics went; until then Adios!