January 15th: Donkeaw Health Center…The Nest Restaurant…Bangkok-Chiang Mai Hospital

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Today we did not participate in morning ceremony but instead had breakfast and headed to the Donkeaw Health Center around 0830. We arrived and were given a presentation about the community center and the work that is being done there. It was very encouraging and inspiring to hear about all the outreach this facility is doing in the community and how they are reaching the underprivileged, elderly, and disabled populations in the community. The center has been very successful in serving these populations as they have all volunteer nurses and doctors and have been rated one of the best community centers in Thailand. It was interesting to hear that they became more successful and expansive after they changed from the ministry of public health to the ministry of the interior. We got to see the alternative medicine they are practicing in the facility such as aroma therapy and massage and I bought an herbal compress that smells amazing! We got to see the way these compresses are made and the work that goes into chopping the fresh herbs. It was awesome to hear about the home visits that the staff make to help the bed ridden in the community too. I really got to see the fruits and benefits of the community-centered Thai culture at the facility we visited in Donkeaw. I hope to work in a similar community clinic at some point that takes care of the underprivileged population. After visiting the community clinic, we went to lunch at the cutest place called the Nest. It was a small restaurant and hotel tucked in a back road in Chiang Mai. It had a beautiful garden and plants filled the small paths around the hotel. I had the most delicious food. Probably my favorite meal of the trip thus far! I had Massaman red curry with white sticky rice and khao soi which is a thai soup dish with rice noodles, beef, and some delicious sauce. ? I also got a strawberry smoothie as well. After eating lunch and bathing in the sun by the pool for a few minutes we headed to the private hospital: Bangkok-Chiang Mai. Upon entering the hospital, I could already tell how different it was going to be from the public hospital. We were given a presentation by the international director. He told us a lot about the prestige of the hospital and how they strive for excellence in their care and empathy. He talked a lot about the international population that they serve at the hospital. The number one international population that they serve is Americans and 33% of their patient load is internationals. The man talked a lot about how they want to expand their international cliental from 33% to 50%, yet he did not have much information about how they were serving the Thai population in Chiang Mai. It was a very difficult contrast coming from the community center where their number one goal is to serve the Thai people and provide health care for the less fortunate whereas the private hospital is trying to get more foreigners to come to their hospital. I still do not understand the goal of trying to draw more foreigners to the facility, but it was a little bit frustrating to hear that they were more concerned with customer service and expansion that patient care and community outreach. We took a tour of the hospital which was really interesting because there did not seem to be a lot of patients. We toured many different floors and I think I only saw a total of four patients. Each floor was very modern and technologically updated, even nicer than a lot of the facilities in the United States. The nurses did not seem to have much to do as a lot of them were standing or sitting at the main desk of each unit. Overall, the experiences in the community clinic and the private hospital were contrasted and both were good experiences to expand my knowledge of Thai health care and to see what kind of hospital or clinic I would like to work for in the future. The rest of the night was filled with working out in the campus gym, eating dinner, and relaxing.

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