Guatemala Village Health: An Instructional Aid for Medical Burn kits in English and Spanish

Jessica Au

Date of Award

2011

Document Type

Thesis

College/School

College of Nursing

Degree Name

Master of Science in Nursing (MSN)

Program Concentration

Family Nurse Practitioner

Abstract

Guatemala Village Health (GVH) is a team of medical professionals and lay volunteers who promote wellness in poor, underserved, vulnerable village populations in rural Guatemala. A GVH team typically returns to the villages every six months and burns are a frequent complaint in these populations; there are many times when burn care is needed but unavailable. To help villagers take charge of their own care, the GVH team has historically left a burn kit in each village and appointed one village member as the village healthcare worker in charge of the burn kits. These village healthcare workers are trained in basic burn care including use of the items in the burn kit. On a six month return visit to the villages, GVH teams discovered that the burn kits are often unopened or underutilized. The villagers stated that they did not know or could not remember how to use the items in the burn kit; there were no instructions. Meeting the villagers identified need for the development of an instructional aid became the focus of this scholarly project. The GVH team will bring the completed instructional aid on an upcoming medical mission in February 2012.

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