Sarah Kjenstad

Pharmacist’s Trip to Nicaragua Provides Care, Opportunity for Personal Growth

I had the immense privilege of traveling to Nicaragua in 2017 for an eight-day medical mission trip with Global Health Outreach (GHO), a ministry of the Christian Medical and Dental Association (CMDA). The organization has approximately 45 international mission trips each year, lasting 1-2 weeks, and traveling to numerous places including Zambia, Thailand, Ecuador, the Middle East, and Bolivia. Many trips offer general medical care, while others have a specific focus, such as orthopedics, refugee assistance, or aiding victims of human trafficking.

Our team had about 25 members, the majority of whom were clinical, while the rest were non-medically trained volunteers to assist in the day-to-day clinic operations. We flew into the capital of Managua on a Saturday. Then the next morning our team took a five-hour bus ride into the mountains and spent Sunday worshiping and readying an empty school for clinic.  

We conducted a general medicine clinic Monday through Thursday, which included visits with both physicians and advanced practice providers, as well as dental, pharmacy and optometry services, in addition to learning about Christ. I was told there are normally two pharmacist volunteers for each trip, but on this particular trip, I was the only one supervising four non-medical volunteers and interpreters as they pre-packaged labeled baggies with a variety of medications including antihypertensives, antidiabetics, analgesics, steroids, and antibiotics as well as patient counseling. Over the course of four days, 620 patients were seen in the clinic with over 3,000 prescriptions dispensed. The final full day of our trip was spent in Managua, a gorgeous seaside town, where we were able to debrief and be tourists.

It was an incredible trip that included immense professional, spiritual, and personal growth that pulled me out of my comfort zone and pushed me to my limits mentally and physically. As a hematology/oncology pharmacist specialist, I relished the challenge of serving a general medicine population using skills I had not utilized since residency. This trip was an overwhelmingly wonderful experience for me, and although the pandemic forced my next planned trip in 2020 to be canceled, I am hoping to join a team once again in the near future.

About Sarah Kjenstad, Pharm.D., BCPS, BCOP

Sarah E. Kjenstad, Pharm.D., BCPS, BCOP is a hematology/oncology clinical pharmacist specialist with Northwestern Medicine and Endeavor Health and lives in Naperville, Illinois. Dr. Kjenstad currently serves as an adjunct assistant professor at Midwestern University and recently served as faculty for the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists’ Specialty Pharmacy Certification Program.