Ari Cale giving the discussion while Jens Hassfeld and the rest of us listen and learn.

Every morning at the hospital we meet as a group of doctors, physician assistants, ultrasonographers and others to discuss the admissions of the previous evening.  Some mornings we discuss a medical topic in order to standardize our care throughout the hospital and improve our daily treatment of the patients we see in the consultorio.  These capacitaciones include the pharmacists and nurses from different departments, and they can range from a discussion of anaphylaxis to how to interpret a blood count or treat asthma.  Sometimes they are basic, and other times they are more difficult.  For many of us they are always difficult because they occur completely in Spanish.  Other times they are difficult not just because they are in Spanish, but also because the topics are things we did not treat often in the US such as acute organophosphate intoxication or some sort of strange parasite.  I am thankful for these meetings, and I am glad when I don’t have to present them and can just sit back and listen.  Especially on a day like today when Ari Cale had to give the hemograma presentation and pronounce the translated words for Mean Corpuscular Hemoglobin and Eosinophilia.  I won’t even try to type them in Spanish :).   I appreciate the continued effort for professionalism and continuing medical education at the hospital.