Clinical Care

Happy Friday! Here are some articles, talks, and resources that caught the eye of MCN employees this week. We hope you enjoy them as much as we did.

Editor's note: This post, written by MCN's Amy Liebman, first appeared in The Pump Handle, a public health blog. Please visit The Pump Handle at http://scienceblogs.com/thepumphandle/.

Editor’s Note: Jennie McLaurin, MD, MPH is MCN’s Specialist in Child & Migrant Health and Bioethics. She is a member of the Washington State Department of Health Anencephaly Advisory Committee. The committee works alongside the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)  to better understand the increased rate of anencephaly recently observed in Washington State. Dr. McLaurin will present on anencephaly at the 2015 Western Migrant Stream Forum in San Diego, California.

Nurses providing care to diverse populations around the world are highlighted in the newly published Global Health Nursing: Narratives from the Field. The book provides firsthand accounts of the challenges and rewards of providing high-quality care in often less-than-ideal clinical settings, and in sometimes dangerous political situations, around the globe.

In light of the recent mishandling of a patient with Ebola virus in Dallas, Texas, MCN has been discussing internally the importance of communication between each patient’s care team. Such issues greatly affect migrant clinicians, where language and cultural differences may create additional communication barriers.

EDIT: MCN is saddened to hear Thomas Duncan has passed away. We offer our condolences to his family and friends.

On September 25, Thomas Eric Duncan went to Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas, Texas, with an unspecified illness. During the intake interview with the nurse, he noted that he had recently returned from Liberia, the country at the epicenter of the Ebola virus, which has already claimed the lives of more than 3400 people in West Africa. 

Last week, President Obama and every member of Congress received a copy of Seth Holmes’ Fresh Fruit, Broken Bodies.  For nearly two years, physician and anthropologist Seth Holmes lived and worked as a migrant farmworker.

Your patient reports stomach pain, nausea and headache. It’s nearing the heart of flu season - these are possible flu symptoms, you think. On examination, the patient doesn’t present with a fever.

“Is anyone at home sick?” you ask.   

No.

“When did the symptoms begin?” 

Hoy (Today).

You notice the patient appears to be dressed for work. “Where were you when the symptoms began?” you ask.

En el trabajo (At work).  

At work, you think. “And what do you do for work?”

Today and tomorrow on Capitol Hill, more than a dozen farmworkers from across the nation are meeting with their members of Congress to call for the implementation of stronger protections for farmworkers from pesticides. MCN's Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Ed Zuroweste, MD, will join the farmworkers and a coalition of allied groups at a briefing for members of Congress and their staffers about the urgent need for an update to EPA's Worker Protection Standard. Here is the statement he will deliver today at the briefing: