Yesterday was a full day. We don’t have a fixed schedule but the days still fill up. I rounded with Dr. Jean from 10:30 – 12:30. We started in the female ward and worked our way towards the men’s ward. The nurses would join us and translate when needed. The ward consists of 1 long room with beds lining each wall. There are windows along the walls that open into the hall so there is very little breeze in the ward. Most of the patient beds have thin sheets but there are several with none and the patients are sleeping directly on the plastic mattress. Dr. Jean is a great teacher. The main diseases on the wards are typhoid and malaria. One woman had a retained placenta after delivery and we plan to evacuate the uterus today.
Last night I met Joseph at the female ward to review Anatomy. We went over the digestive tract. I discovered that he has been taught very little Anatomy and the book is a little too basic for the nursing level. Joseph had drawn a diagram of the entire tract and we reviewed it step by step. I hope that I didn’t overwhelm him. During our session Joseph had to get up several times to take care of patients (he was working night shift). I asked how many nurses were in the ward and he said 3 nurses (remember there are probably around 25 patients on the ward). One nurse was sleeping and the other nurse had gone home for awhile. Joseph had to take care of the ward by himself. While we were sitting at the nurse’s station a couple of people rode by on bicycles and one person rode a motorcycle straight into the ward and parked it…unbelievable! The fumes filled the hallways for several minutes. There are many times where I’m just so frustrated.
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