Welcome to Talca! And clinical! A lot in 24 hours, right? We arrived yesterday a little after 5 p.m. and headed straight to our hotel, which looks like something out of a 50’s Humphrey Bogart movie. It was hit hard by the earthquake a few years ago and is still recovering. We are one of the only people here!
After we got settled, we walked to a famous local restaurant for dinner. Well, after walking the diameter of Talca, getting lost several times and being followed the entire way by a stray dog, we finally arrived at our destination. The food was delicious and cheap too!
Today, we went to the psychiatric hospital for the first time. The facility looked surprisingly similar to psych hospitals in the U.S. We sat and talked with several of the patients and then sat in with a doctor doing his walking rounds. Later in the day, we went to the geriatric psych section and got a tour from the charge nurse. We were allvery impressed with the care of the geriatric patients at the hospital. Out of 81 patients, only one of them had a pressure ulcer!
Today was exhausting (between walking around the psych facility and attempting to translate Spanish), but it was definitely one of the most interesting days we’ve had so far. It was so cool to be able to see how other countries handle mental illness and patient care. We cannot wait to go back tomorrow!
P.S. This blog was supposed to be posted on Monday, but the wifi at the hotel stopped working…
View a photo gallery from the trip.
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