Chantal Blanchard and Jennifer Nelson head to Honduras to practice respiratory therapy, putting to work the career they’ve been studying for two years

Chantal Blanchard said she expects a one-month aid position in Honduras to show her how challenging her job can be.

Blanchard and classmate Jennifer Nelson, who just finished their second year studying respiratory therapy, leave for Sandy Bay, Roatán, Honduras July 11.

“We looked into a couple of organizations to see if there was anyone who would take us and then an old friend of mine from university had gone to this clinic and I asked her if they would take us and she gave us the contact info and they said yes,” Blanchard said. “It’s something I’ve always wanted to do and it’s a way to travel. I always wanted to volunteer abroad and when you go into the medical field that’s always an option.”

Both women said they entered the respiratory therapy field because they wanted to help people.

“I got to see a lot of it; my grandfather had a lot of breathing issues so I saw what they did and thought it was interesting,” said Nelson, a Hampton resident. “I always wanted to do something in the medical field; that just directed me.”

Respiratory therapists work in almost every sector of a hospital, from intensive care units, to neonatal units to operating rooms.

“We work with the sickest of the sick patients,” Blanchard explained. “Any patient that’s on life support is going to be seen by a respiratory therapist all day everyday, high-risk deliveries, operating rooms … in any situation where there’s going to be a problem with breathing or their airway could be compromised in any way there’s always an RT on standby.”

In Sandy Bay, Blanchard and Nelson will be doing “a bit of everything,” they said.

“They want to rotate us because I guess the head nurse of the clinic was also a respiratory therapist before she got into nursing so she rotates between this clinic and the main public hospital on the island,” Blanchard said. “They want us to go with her so we’ll get exposure at the hospital as well.”

The clinic where they’ll be working, Clinica Esperanza, is the primary medical provider for hundreds of residents of the island. The facility treats a variety of medical problems including malaria, dengue and parasites. The clinic is considered the centre for hypertension and diabetes on the island.

Clinica Esperanza, (www.clinicaesperanza.com) welcomes help, donations and volunteers. Part of the volunteer opportunity for Blanchard and Nelson is that they have to donate $500 to the clinic during their stay.

The pair is also collecting any type of medicine or hygienic product to bring to the island.

Both Blanchard and Nelson just completed their second year of schooling and will finish their studies next year. They said it will be a learning experience to work in Honduras without the resources they’re used to.

“It will definitely be quite an awakening,” Nelson said.

“We’re so used to having unlimited supplies of drugs, unlimited supplies of every life-saving thing you need and now we’re in a situation where you might have a child with asthma and you might not even have a puffer to give them so it’s definitely going to change,” Blanchard added. “It will show us how fortunate we are to have the resources we have.”

Both women said respiratory therapy is an up-and-coming field with more technical advances happening everyday.

“It was our choice in the medical field,” Blanchard said. “It’s harder because it’s an advanced and more of a technical profession that in developing countries there’s not really a need. They don’t have oxygen, they don’t have the higher-end equipment that we usually use in health care.”

Blanchard said the career is rewarding.

“We see the same patients week to week and you get that continuity of care and you see them at their worst get better,” she said. “It’s a whole other person when they leave and it’s nice to have that patient relationship.”

Another challenge in Hondruas will be the language barrier, both women said.

“It’s one thing to try to diagnose a patient when you understand what they’re saying but in Spanish you have no idea,” she said. “It’s going to be really hard. You’re going to rely a lot more on what you’re looking at and rely on your sense to get around that huge barrier.”

Both women said they hope to learn a lot from the abroad experience.

“I hope to get a better perspective on what our career actually is,” Blanchard said. “It’s really getting down to the basics of what we do and realize we shouldn’t take for granted the resources we have.”

To donate funds to either Blanchard or Nelson, contact them at 693-8529 or 832-3754. They are also collecting medicine or hygienic products to take on the trip.