It's Not Chilly in Chile

There is a first for everything, and my most impressive one of this vacation in Chile is not trying the incredible lucuma desserts or having protective parents for the first time in my life (host parents in this case) or even seeing a 600 gram baby in a public hospital- nope, it's experiencing summer in January. The southern hemisphere sun penetrates even my SPF 50 sunblock, and there is no denying that life is better on the beach.


I wouldn't be here if it weren't for a nursing class, and even though it cuts down on the beach time I appreciate it because the topics are much more interesting than any undergraduate course I took. We're comparing the Chilean health care system with our own. There are many good comparisons. Despite Chile being a developing country, it has managed to acquire the health status of a developed country, with chronic preventable illness as the major health issues rather than infectious diseases. But unlike the U.S., where 50 million are uninsured, every Chilean can receive health care through their impressive (but not perfect) public health care system.


Last week I visited a rural health clinic and saw an example of aggressive preventative health care. Prevention is clearly much cheaper than diagnosis and treatment, so it serves a community with scarce resources better. Unfortunately, health promotion, education, and disease prevtion are not as lucrative for health care professionals as surgeries and MRI's. Yesterday I visited a 200 year old public hospital in Valparaiso- Carlos Van Buren- and saw how well midwives ran the show in the maternity units; tomorrow we're going to Santiago to see the university hospital and visit the school of nursing. In Chile, all nurses complete a 5 year program and a thesis exam as the entrance to the profession. They are pretty shocked when they hear that nurses in the U.S. can become licensed after an associate degree.


Overall, it's been a bit of a career directing experience. I'm anxious to return and begin nursing. If only it were summer in New York too.