Beth Corpuz, MD: Mountain Area Health Education Center (MAHEC), Internal Medicine PGY1

Honduras: July 2024

 I embarked on my first medical outreach trip in late July 2024, through the organization Shoulder to Shoulder, which serves Southern Intibuca, Honduras. Our group was composed of community and faculty physicians, residents in family medicine, internal medicine, and pharmacy, medical students, pre-medical undergraduate students, and accompanying family members. During this time, our goal was to reach out into the community through daily clinics, improving accessibility to medical care and supplementing the existing care these patients receive. Each day our group would send half of the volunteers to one village, and one half to another; this way, we travelled to over twelve localities over the course of the trip. We would pack up all our medical supplies and medications into the back of pickup trucks, then all climb in ourselves.

 Our paths wound around the side of a particularly mountainous region, somewhat reminiscent of the mountains back in our home base in Asheville, North Carolina. Upon arrival, we would set up our supplies in our improvised clinic space, usually either a school or a church. There was usually already a line of patients waiting to be seen. We then divided work and began setting up stations. Students or a local nurse would be performing intake, and obtain vital signs. Patients would then be directed to one of our provider stations. This was where I worked, and depending on the concern, the outcome of the visit was variable: from distributing medication or reading glasses, to teaching physical therapy techniques, to performing ultrasound, or administering joint injections.

 After seeing anywhere from 60-100 people, we would be nearing the end of the day and often sending out groups of providers on home visits. Ending one such visit with a hug and squeezing my patient’s hand, I was reminded once again why I became a doctor. The people and communities I met on this trip encouraged me to continue to pursue global and public health.