One of our foundational goals is to improve access to high quality healthcare in rural Guatemala. As highlighted in a prior blog post, illness does not care what time it is. Thus, we aspire to provide 24/7/365 access to care to our patient population.
As referenced in the prior post, our plan was- and still is- to grow our local team in order to facilitate such access. We have made a couple of hires to expand our nursing team. However, for many of the same reasons our center exists in the first place, recruiting physicians has proven to be a bit more difficult.
According to data from the World Health Organization, in Guatemala there are ~12 physicians per 10,000 people (In contrast, in the United States there are ~36 physicians per 10,000). (1)
This relative shortage of physicians in Guatemala is compounded by the fact that most physicians opt to practice in larger urban areas such as Guatemala City where they have access to a more concentrated population and where patients typically have greater resources with which to compensate their providers. Hence, it can be challenging for centers such as ours which are located in rural Guatemala (in our case, roughly three hours from Guatemala City) to identify and hire providers who share our ideals and are available and willing to work alongside us in providing care to some of the country's most vulnerable patients.
While we are still keeping our eyes out for potential candidates to join our local team, we have opted to provide 24 hour access to care with our current team. This translates to me personally providing overnight and weekend on-call emergency coverage 5 days out of every 7 for the foreseeable future. I cover Saturdays and Sundays as well as all weeknights with the exception of Tuesday and Friday (which are covered by my colleague Dr. Dina).
This current arrangement occasionally provokes the ire of my Oura Ring (pictured below). For those unfamiliar, it is a wearable that tracks various biometrics as well as sleep quality and quantity.
When my Oura Ring is irritated with my fragmented sleep, I find solace in a framed quote from George Bernard Shaw that now resides on the desk in my home office (right beside my astronaut :)
Here's to burning "as brightly as possible."
P.S.
Want to provide patient care and cover some overnight call in rural Guatemala? You, my friend, are in luck! Click HERE to explore working with us.
Want to amplify our impact in rural Guatemala and join us in burning brightly? Click HERE to donate to our work.
Top photo by Aziz Acharki on Unsplash
1)https://www.who.int/data/gho/data/indicators/indicator-details/GHO/medical-doctors-(per-10-000-population)