Sydney, Charly, and my final project is about Zika Virus and Maternal Health in Nicaragua. We have broken up our project into three steps:
- Compile research and information to bring to Nicaragua
- Administer surveys and collect/analyze data
- Ethnographic interviewing to explore areas of interest in survey data
From the information in my About Nicaragua project and our group research, we could not find any regional data about Zika incidence in Nicaragua, including for Siuna and Hormiguero where we will be working. At the CCESP dinner at Dr. Bracken’s house I got the change to talk to Dr. Eileen Granahan who has been on the trip multiple times, including last year, about how Zika may have appeared in the clinic last year. At the time, information about Zika was just emerging and they had no way of diagnosing at the clinic so the doctors treated it similarly to Chikungunya and Dengue because the diseases presented similarly. Patients who they thought may have Zika were referred to the hospital in Siuna to confirm cursory diagnoses with blood and urine tests. She said that the locals do have basic knowledge of vector borne diseases like Zika because they live with them but they often do not have the financial resources to buy things like insect repellent and mosquito nets.
My group and I thought that our three step method was useful because it allowed us to do a lot of ground work at home and bring knowledge and resources to the country. But, rather than assuming that we knew best how to deliver this knowledge in a way that helped the population best, we would use surveys to learn what they knew and what they wanted to learn and could then delve into areas of interest with ethnographic interviewing. We have also discussed with other community health teams, specifically those interested in women’s health, about combining some of their questions and our into surveys, specifically for the Casa Materna. We believe that our format is very easily adaptable and allows the patients to dictate what we learn from them. This will help ensure that our conversations are fruitful and productive because they will have first expressed interest in the topic. Furthermore, the surveys allow them to ask questions of us not directly related to our topic which inspires more trust and mutual conversation between us rather than simply dry interviewing.
Here is the link to our full powerpoint which we will also be bringing to Nicaragua to present to clinicians there. In the other tab beneath this section you will find all of our deliverables that correspond with steps one and two in our project including an informative infographic, concise handout, and skeleton surveys to be used in the clinic and Casa Materna. Hopefully, upon our return, I will be able to upload audio or video of our interviews and transcripts as well to show what we have learned from the full process.