As an interdisciplinary team, we have resolved to fight not only against COVID-19, but also against the abandonment of our patients and families. Although we know that they cannot be the first priority for the medical supplies and personnel right now, we try, with the means available to us, to change the reality of many children who depend on us. We cannot fail in supporting them — in supporting the nutrition of a rural, low-income newborn whose parents are very poorly educated (the reality in a large percentage of our region), knowing that if it is not us who will support them, there will be no one else. Otherwise, in one or three more months, when all this is over, they will probably be malnourished, infected, or in a much worse scenario.
Currently, modernity has given us several tools that we can use in our favor, resources usually used for leisure, which are massive and low-cost. Social media is the key to continue our work. WhatsApp, video calls, and the ability to send photos for free was the solution. It is possible to maintain the great amounts of attention in a call, whether to maintain contact, impart tranquility, learn about advances in patients’ nutrition, teach new techniques of diet, research changes in treatment, or promote adherence to treatment and communication.
– Lisette Jerez, GANFIT Nurse