The relevant background is that I was assisting with ultrasounds. Mostly I sterilized probes between patients and transcribed the notes that my parent dictated, and then made sure it got to the clinic's permanent doctor so he could answer any follow-up questions the patiens had. My parent also explained to each patient that I was their child and asked them if it was ok for me to assist, so sometimes I would hold the probe and help do the exam, under my parent's supervision.
Another unanticipated role I had was helping communicate. My Spanish is not great but my parent's Spanish is worse and so I ended up translating really basic things (stuff like telling patients to drink water and return with a full bladder, asking them to turn right or left) or if it was a sensitive situation that requred more communication (such as if we found something worrying on the scan), asking them to wait while I went to get the permanent doctor, who could speak Spanish and the local languages.
Before I went, all the people on the program had to sign papers promising not to do anything that would be considered unethical or illegal in our home countries, even if it were permitted by the local laws. To my knowledge, we adhered to that strictly. It did raise some interesting questions about informed consent because we had to take the word of the local doctor who spoke the language that patients understood and consented to the procedures. There were more protocols in place for that when it came to the surgical team, but since ultrasound is so low-risk and people were so eager to get anything and everything examined, it was a little open-ended.
Does this make it a bad topic? I don't want to get into anything controversial, but the ethics questions involved with medical mission work and rural medicine were part of what made it so interesting for me.
