February 27th, 2019
Hola from Argentina!  Jennifer Roland Buffett and Chantal Caron here to fill you in on day 13 of our exciting adventure

Our time is rapidly winding up here in Buenos Aires (pronounced Bwen-nous Air-e-ers, and from Aragonese means “good air”).  Today we completed our final clinical hours with the volunteers at Roffo Hospital and the Children’s Hospital.  We have been spending so much time with these wonderful people.  It is so heart warming to think that just two weeks ago we were strangers, coming from very different cultures who did not speak the same languages.  Yet, through sharing the common passion of caring for people, wanting to make a difference, and the life saving App translator, we managed to build a unique and genius bond that none of will ever forget!!!

 We arrived at the Children’s Hospital and split up into groups and followed the volunteers to different areas.  Today would be different than all of the other days for me because I brought in my fiddle.  Through experience I know that music is a universal language that can express in a powerful way that words cannot.  Myself, the volunteer as a guide, and two of our instructors Belinda Andrea and Debbie Cantwell stopped in units all over the hospital we were introduced by the volunteer and then I’d play a few medleys.  It's safe to say Cape Breton fiddle was well received.  We instantly saw the precious smiles of the little faces of the children and their families. Using the translator App our volunteer first introduced us to a little girl who she said needed some positivity as she had many medical problems.  Watching her smile form with the first four bars of the tune was so priceless.  I also played a few tunes in the play area in the courtyard.  The children were so adorable.  One little girl, maybe just 14 months placed her  hands over her mouth as soon as she heard me tuning up.  She didn’t really smile nor did she cry, she just looked mesmerized.  When I finished, she toddled up to me.  I crouched down thinking she was curious to see my fiddle.  But instead she leaned in and kissed my cheek.  This is a traditional greeting by all Argentinians but I was still enchanted that this child just a baby approached me with such sweetness. By this time my heart was over flowing with every emotion imaginable.  One boy who followed us around for a bit brought me a leaf and a big hug.  I noticed he too had a cleft lip as I had as a child.  His mother was bursting with joy because he was so happy.  We also made stops in the ER waiting room, plastic surgery, the medical surgical floor and the intensive care unit.  Here, I kept the music quiet and soothing, as most of the children were not in conscious states.  Again my heart was overwhelmed with emotions. We took some group photo’s with the volunteers.  Many of these volunteers came to do extra days to accommodate our visit.  They simply could not do enough for us and from the first day embraced us with open arms literally.  We finished our clinical day at the Children’s Hospital with a few tunes in the chapel for the volunteers and all of us students.  I truly cannot say enough about these amazing people.  It was a very fulfilling experience to finally be able to bridge both of my passions into a single experience.

Children's Hospital Gang with the Hospital Volunteers

Meanwhile, Chantal was completing her clinical hours at Roffo Hospital:

Chantal) Hola everyone!  Today was our last day at our volunteer placement at Angel H Roffo Hospital.  We had an interesting morning planned, as we were allowed to participate in rounds with the medical residents for the morning.  We visited various patient rooms on a unit that admits patients for short visits, either for some kind of treatment (chemotherapy, etc) or for remediation of side effects of their primary treatments.  Patients will be admitted to be administered antibiotics, fluids, and so on for treatments of side effects.  We spoke to one of the residents for some period of time concerning the indications of use for one of their chemotherapy drugs.  The resident explained that they prefer to give this drug in its oral form, as it costs significantly less than the IV format.  However, the oral form causes much more side effects, which causes many of the patients being treated by medication to be admitted to this unit.  After rounds on that unit we were finished, we made our way back to the palliative care unit we visited the day before.  We met with the head of the department of palliative care, a physician that explained to us the importance of this service within the hospital.  The palliative care service at Roffo truly embodies holistic care for a patient.  Complimentary therapies are offered to patients and include reflexology (mentioned in previous blog posts), Reiki, virtual reality, art therapy, and “music bowls”, a therapy that involves placing wooden bowls on or around the patient and playing them to create vibrations and a tune.  We then went over to the other side of the hospital grounds to visit the newest building at this hospital.  It houses the equipment used for radiation therapy, and serves as a clinic for those receiving this therapy.  We were escorted to a “bunker” where we viewed the inside of a room where radiation would be administered.  While us students were on this tour, our two instructors for the day were heading over to the nursing school featured on the grounds of the Roffo Hospital with some donations for the school, including materials with which the nursing students could practice skills.  The instructors were informed that half of the materials could be used in the Hospital and the other half could be used in the school.  This was awesome news for us because we were so happy to be able to see that our donations would not only be used to help nursing students of the Roffo hospital, but also the patients utilizing this hospital for treatment.  Lastly, our instructors joined us for a farewell lunch hosted by the volunteer staff we had spent time with during our past two weeks.  We tasted some delicious empanadas made by two of the chemotherapy nurses, and were awarded with our volunteer badges from the Roffo Hospital.  Our instructors became honorary official Angel H Roffo “volunterias” as they were figted some distinctive pink shirts all of the volunteers at this hospital wear.  We each received a photo collage of the pictures taken during our placements.  It was a wonderful token of appreciation to us, and I know we will cherish it forever!  It was with heavy hearts that we left the hospital after our farewell lunch, but our times spent at this wonderful hospital was truly amazing.  We cannot thank the volunteers and staff at the Roffo hospital enough for their welcoming ways and for making this an unforgettable experience.

Later in the evening, some of us took in a workshop given to us by our leader in Argentina Micaela Browne on the topic of Volunteering.  It was a 3 hour reflective workshop in which we developed projects, using our critical thinking skills that we have developed as nurses throughout our studies, ( that would be financially feasible) to improve health outcomes at both facilities we visted. The team here in Argentina loved our ideas and would most likely put them forward.