Traveling Scholars Program Report
Andrea Medina Méndez, MD
Travel date: April 11, 2018
Name of Meeting/Event/Activity: IX Congreso Latinoamericano de Cuidados Paliativos de la Asociación Latinoamericana de Cuidados Paliativos (ALCP)
Origin: San Jose, Costa Rica / Destination: Santiago, Chile
Photos
Andrea Medina Mendez attending congress How was this meeting/activity helpful to you?
Currently in my workplace (Palliative Care service at the San Juan de Dios Hospital) we want to create a specialized consultation of Palliative Medicine for non-oncological diseases (mainly cardiology. HIV, renal failure and liver failure). With the new knowledge and skills acquired in the Congress, I will be able to develop this project in a better way and thus offer a better quality of life and death for patients in nononcological terminal condition. Education and the advocacy that results from new skills and knowledge can be the strongest drivers to change. How will you use the new knowledge and acquired skills you have gained from this educational experience to advancement of palliative care in your place Of employment, city and/or country? My profession is medicine, so the promotion and education strategies are mainly for doctors.
How will you new knowledge & acquired skills help in furthering your work in hospice and palliative care in your program/city/ or country?
1- Promote education on Palliative Medicine (PM) and Palliative Care (PC) to resident physicians other than PM. 2-TO transmit in the classes and during the rotations, the new knowledge and hablidades to the medical residents in PM. Share with my team the new knowledge and skills. Promote and educate specialist physicians (cardiologist, pulmonologist, gastroenterologist, Intemal Medicine, ect) on Pc and PM in order to refer patients who require PC in an early and timely manner. 5-Educate the medical population Of my workplace through masterly presentations of topics on PC and PM in medical sessions. 6-Create a consultation Of PM specialized in non-oncological terminal diseases where psychological, social and spiritual support is provided to the patient and his family. 7-Create a home visit team for non-oncological terminal diseases.
How IAHPC Traveling Scholars Program be improved in order to help other future traveling scholars?
Personally, I think the scholarship could improve if: Expand the amount Of the scholarship. Promote relationships between scholars. Encnurage meetings with experts during the congress for the scholars. The initiative to take a group photo is nice, however it would have been more useful if there had been some other activity on the part of the IAHPC so that the other scholars we knew more and we managed to exchange knowledge and experiences of the place of origin of each one. Do something like a lunch or group coffee. Regrettably I had an inconvenient the day of the photo and arrive 15 minutes late for the taking of the photo in a Latin American congress with Latin American participants, a delay of 15 min is within the culturally and socially accepted. The first talk on April 12 began with 45 minutes of delay- I brought some sweets from Costa Rica to share with fellow scholars, but because of the delay I had, I could not share them and give them to Julia and her colleagues from the IAHPC stant. A lunch or coffee with some expert in such a way that the scholarship can interact with the expert in a closer and intimate way.