Canada Reports
Introduction
This section contains elective reports from the Caribbean. Use the menu above to select a particular hospital/region.
Happy Valley - Goose Bay
Labrador Health Centre, Happy Valley-Goose Bay
| Submitted by: | Helen Davis |
| Date of visit: | March 2008 |
Destination contact(email):
>none availableDestination website:
>none available
Learning objectives
• To experience the provision of health care in a very remote and cold environment.
• To learn about family medicine in a different country and culture.
What I saw and did...
Labrador Health Centre is a small hospital which provides healthcare for all of north Labrador, which includes many Innu and Inuit communities. I had the role of a clinical clerk and I had many more responsibilities than I had had previously as a medical student, so my skills and confidence improved greatly.
Despite being a small health centre only patients who need intensive care, specialist surgery or a special investigation e.g. MRI need to be flown out to a bigger centre, as there is a general surgeon, an anaesthetist and an obstetrician (all on call 24/7!) The family doctors do everything else, so while I was there I got to deliver babies, assist in theatre and manage emergency admissions and inpatients, as well as see routine acute and chronic health problems similar to what a GP would see in UK, but with less input from specialists. Patients out in the coastal communities are evacuated by plane to Goose Bay in an emergency, and I got to do one of these 'Medevacs' while I was there.
I also got to spend a week in one of the coastal Inuit communities, Nain, which has a nursing station. There are huge challenges providing health services to such small communities, as any patient who is very unwell needs a Medevac to Goose Bay, but it may be many hours before conditions are right for the small plane to land. A lot depends much more on clinical judgment as investigations such as blood tests and X-rays are a flight away, and there is only a limited range of drugs available immediately. The roads are snow-bound in the winter and so people travel on snowmobiles, which are much more prone to accidents, so there are frequently major trauma cases which have to be handled by the nurses. While I was there I got to go on a helicopter to get a man who had had a snowmobile accident some distance away (and it was minus 30 degrees C, so latex gloves need to go over mitts!).
There are also many social problems associated with isolation, with a lot of alcoholism, drugs and suicides particularly in the Inuit population. I learnt a great deal about their very different culture of fishing and hunting and trapping for food, which is now being lost to more western style living. Unfortunately, diabetes and hypertension are becoming increasing problems in this aboriginal population, and a lot of public health efforts are being targeted towards lifestyle education here.
I learned so much here which has contributed to my development as a doctor and I definitely fulfilled my learning objectives.
