Wednesday June 22nd

^{Wednesday June 22nd}

This morning I woke up excited about being able to actually get things done. I am so relieved that Dr. Corvin is here because I feel like things will finally be pushed forward. This morning I went to UB and met with Dr. Corvin. Elizabeth and I helped Dr. Corvin complete and submit the IRB materials for USF. After maybe an hour of finalizing all the materials, Caitlin and Debby joined us and we continued to finalize everything that had to be submitted. After correcting everything we were finally ready to continue onward into making sure our survey was ready to pilot. We moved into the conference room and met with Mrs. Timbrell. Dr. Corvin informed us that we would be pilot testing the survey tomorrow. We will be meeting at 8am at the Bus stop here in Belmopan and then we will head to Belize City to the Cleopatra White clinic. This setting is not ideal because it is nothing like what we will be actually doing which is going door to door. Also at the clinic the population we get may be very different from what we are going to be encountering n a daily basis.

            To get a better idea or something closer to what we will be doing we also plan on maybe heading to San Ignacio, which is about an hour away, and possibly doing the survey somewhere near the bus station near the market. We may encounter a similar population there and also it will give us the opportunity to actually iron out the survey, see how it flows and actually see what works and what doesn’t work. Even though Dr. McKay has said going there is not a good idea I think since we are pressed on time (Elizabeth, Caitlin and Debby are leaving this next weekend) and also since we have not actually performed the study it will not hurt to pilot the study there at all.

            We also agreed that after the pilot we would have a debriefing session where we would discuss our experiences, revise the protocol, and finalize the survey if necessary. We also discussed our lack of support from UB in terms of students and the only student we have is Ruth. It would have been ideal if we had more students taking part in the study. We definitely need more UB students but we have to “roll with the punches” and push when we can. Hopefully from all this we will be able to develop the long-term objective of a program that is supported by UB and the MOH.            

            We also have to start finalizing on the community health fair on the 2^nd of July. We hope to use the help of the community health worker to help us get an event location and also gain support from the community. Dr. Corvin brought some educational pamphlets in Spanish. We will be able to at least give people information on hypertension, diabetes, BMI, CVD. The organizations that we are still very interested in including are Diabetic association, BFLA, a family and reproductive organization, Red Cross. We can also possibly include the nurses I met last night who are doing a health intervention (fingers crossed). To inform the San Martin community we plan on getting mini fliers made to pass out at the Belmopan bus station.

            After discussing all the technicalities, Dr. Corvin, Mrs. Timbrell and us went over the survey ensuring that there it was culturally appropriate for Belize. This is exciting!!! Three-quarters through the survey the rain started falling and Mrs. Timbrell had to leave to pick up her son, she seems a little more relieved that things are moving along swimmingly. I am still not sure what her role is in this entire process but any help is good help. In the afternoon Elizabeth completed the changes to the survey while we worked on other information and planned for the next day. Dr. Corvin was also able to meet Dr. McKay who has made us final survey copies for the pilot we will be doing tomorrow.

The process of the pilot also seems to take a lot of phone calls and permission. In Belize City we have to get the permission of the PH nurse (Mrs. Wade) so that we could do the survey at Cleo White polyclinic. In Trial farm we have to get the permission of the PH nurse (Mrs. Bell) for Orange Walk and Corozal. Luckily Dr.McKay seems to know all these people and was able to get on the phone and talk to each one of them allowing us to accomplish at least one part of the needs assessment process.

We are making moves!