Nursing Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Nursing, including details on health care, hospital staff, professional care.

A guide for visiting clinicians to Guatemala: common presenting symptoms and treatment.

Chickering WH

McGuire VA Hospital, Richmond, VA, USA.

For volunteer clinicians from North America and Europe, treating patients for the first time in remote areas of Guatemala can be a challenge. Radiology and laboratory facilities are usually lacking, and the cultural and linguistic barriers are huge. This article provides clinicians working in Guatemala with a description and ranking of the most common presenting complaints, as determined from a chart review of 1,500 patients. Unfamiliar diagnoses, empiric treatment, and pertinent cultural factors, including the fading but still-present hot-cold paradigm, are also included.

Published 5 April 2006 in J Transcult Nurs, 17(2): 190-7.
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