Mallory's Blogs

Day 1: After 32 hours of travelling and 3 flights later, we finally made it to the Dominican Republic yesterday. The view while landing was beautiful, the terrain was very mountainous and full of lush greenery. Today we met Dr. Lambert and were shown to the space that we were to design a lab for. While we originally, thought it would be a small lab, we learned today that it potentially be the largest hospitals in Puerto Plata. This change of plans was a bit overwhelming, yet also very exciting. Part of being a medical laboratory technician is being flexible and adaptable. We have already gotten to put these qualities to the test twice during this trip, during our flight change and the change of location and size of our lab design, and we have done so successfully. I look forward to the exciting opportunities in the future and challenges yet to come!

Day 2: oday we went to Dr Lambert’s clinic in Con Greyho (spelling?)
We were able to watch patients being treated and then went for a walk through the village. We were invited into a small school amd met children and teachers. The children were being taught Spanish, English,French and Creole. The children were all very happy and polite and I wanted to be able to communicate with them. There was difinetly a language barrier there and I wished that I had time to learn Spanish before coming here. One of my new goals when I get home is to brush up on my French and Spanish.

Day 3: today we got to visit a private lab in the DR. It was a last minute change to go to this lab instead of another, but the lab director was extremely nice and welcoming. We got a tour of the lab and we were able to ask a lot of questions to aid in our lab design project. We learned a few important things that we had not thought of since we are not familiar with the testing and supply availability in this area, such as including a media preparation room since it is very expensive to buy here. The main think I noticed though was the amount of similarities between the labs here and those at home, especially when it comes to safety and quality. I am excited to use the knowledge I gained today to better our lab design.

Mallory Kennedy
Medical Laboratory Technology Student
NSCC, Waterfront Campus