About Trips

Checklist for Volunteer Participants on DOCARE trips

1. Find out about a DOCARE trip via your colleagues, friends or a web search.

2. Read the trip details in the Upcoming Trips section of our website.

3. Click through to the application form, and complete all fields. Note that the form includes a liability form.
Please read it thoroughly (you can see the text again here).

4. The DOCARE team will process your application. Expect to hear back within seven to ten days

5. If you have been notified that you have been accepted, you can begin travel arrangements:

• Review our Preparing to Participate webpage. Use links available on the DOCARE website for
  advice on safe travel.
• If necessary, get or renew your passport and any visas necessary for your trip. (If your trip
  requires a visa, delay booking flights, etc., until you have secured the visa.)
• Book your airfare.
• Book your hotel, or confirm group arrangements with the trip director.
• Visit a travel medicine clinic for any vaccinations, medications, or advice you may need.
• Purchase medical and evacuation insurance for your trip. (Click here for options.)
• Send proof of your insurance to the trip director.
• Complete an emergency contact form via the DOCARE website.
• Review our packing list and prepare your personal luggage.
• Make copies of your passport and store them at home, in your email inbox, in your luggage, and
  with the trip director.

6. If you are a student seeking course credits for trip participation, work with your university to complete
any steps necessary for approval, registration, and/or receiving credits.

7. If you are an osteopathic physician intending to use this trip for continuing medical education credits,
confirm this with the trip director and work through any necessary paperwork for registration,
attestation, etc.

8. If applicable, collect any donated medical supplies you intend to bring in your luggage. (Please do not
collect any items without the assent of the trip director.)

9. Make necessary payments.

• a. Pay for a DOCARE membership at our website. (This is required for all participants.)
• b. Follow the trip director’s instructions for any payment of group lodging, transport, etc.

10. Before departure, be sure you have printed copies of your passport, insurance cards, flight itinerary, hotel
confirmation, and contact info for the trip director in case of emergency/delay.

11. Complete the trip. Have fun!

12. Submit a testimonial, like us on Facebook, share photos, and check out our website for
opportunities to travel again!

If you have any questions, contact us at info@docare.org or 413-285-8601.

A famous haiku (well, it's from a cartoon) says: Traveler's nightmare becomes a hilarious story later on.

While it might be true, we see no need for you to accumulate hilarious stories with DOCARE.... especially not the kind with personal illness or injury factoring into the tale's denouement. DOCARE much prefers that all our participants stay safe and healthy before, during, and after travel with us.

To ensure you remain well, we ask all participants to do the following

Before Traveling

1. Use the CDC websites, guidebooks and travel medicine texts to ensure you're versed in the healthcare
   issues affecting the country you're traveling to. Click here to get started.
2. Visit your primary care physician or local travel medicine clinic to get up to date on your vaccinations, receive advice and/or prescriptions for preventing and treating tropical diseases in your destination country, and address any existing personal medical issues that might affect your travel. Get this done four to six weeks before you travel, as a series of actions might be required to adequately prepare for travel.
3. Pack personal first aid and hygiene items for personal use during the trip. Please see the packing list (PDF) on the DOCARE website.
4. Get travel medical and evacuation (medevac) insurance. DOCARE recommends being insured to a $500,000 level. Please note that this insurance is different from trip cancellation insurance, and you might wish to get both types of policies. See this list of providers to get started in picking a plan.
5. Review and sign off on the official DOCARE liability form. This is integrated into our trip application form and can also be obtained from your trip director.
6. Submit an emergency contact form to DOCARE. This information will be shared with the trip director to help ensure your safety.

While Traveling

1. Store copies of your passport page with your family back home, in your email inbox, and on your person.
2. Know what to do in the case of an accident or crime: keep the contact information for the local US
   Embassy, trip director, and your insurance provider in the same places as your passport page.
3. Adhere to any preventive care or medical regimen necessary for your wellbeing. This can include taking
   malaria prophylaxis, avoiding mosquito bites, and not drinking water from unclean sources, as well as any
   healthcare regimen personal to you.

After Traveling

1. Help others: Submit a trip testimonial to ensure that we can use your knowledge to improve
   the health and safety of the volunteers who go on trips after you.

The following is a basic, general list. Please consult your trip director, trip materials, guidebooks, travel medicine
clinician, and weather reports to plan for the location you are visiting.

Clothing:

• Jeans or other lightweight pants and T-shirts
• Scrubs for the work week
• Sweater, sweatshirt or jacket
• Socks and underwear
• Bathing suit (some hotels have a pool)
• Tennis shoes
• Hat with visor or broad brim
• Water repellent jacket, poncho or umbrella\

Toiletries/Personal Medications:
Bear in mind that most toiletries can likely be purchased in your destination country.

• Personal toiletries, deodorant, shaving gear, cosmetics, soap, shampoo, toothpaste and hand/body lotion
• Personal medications, headache, allergy medication, cold or sore throat remedies
• Pepto-Bismol, Kaopectate or other OTC medication for traveler’s diarrhea
• A broad-spectrum antibiotic such as Ciprofloxacin (strictly for use in case of illness)
• Lip balm
• Insect repellent for skin or to spray / mosquito net and malaria prophylaxis (for malaria-endemic regions)
• Sunscreen (SPF 30+)
• First aid items such as Band-Aids or antibiotic ointment
• Hand sanitizer/wipes
• WHO card documenting vaccinations received

Medical Equipment:

• Stethoscope
• Blood pressure cuff
• Other basic, handheld medical equipment for primary care

Other:

• Adaptor for electric sockets (specific to the destination country - check guidebooks or Google for specifics)
• Notebook, paper, pen
• Spanish/English dictionary or electronic Spanish dictionary (or the same in another language)
• Medical Spanish book or app
• Sunglasses
• Flashlight
• Kleenex
• Camera, camera batteries, and a memory card/flash drive
• Photocopies of your passport, medical license, and/or student ID
• Unlocked phone or instructions for unlocking your phone (in the event you wish to buy a local SIM card)

Donation Items:
Please contact your trip director prior to collecting, purchasing, or packing medical equipment or supply donations
of any kind, as this requires coordination for logistical, legal, and customs-related reasons.