Shift begins @ 6a-6p. Breakfast served at 10am & lunch @ 2p. Meals are cooked by some local Haitians? Saturdays lunch was meatballs & rice & tomato & corn salsa. Sunday breakfast beef & cabbage soup with bread. Dinner consisted of BBQ chicken, rice & pigeon peas, potato salad , garnished with onion & cucumber. The meals are good. Starchy...but good. And..... No travelers diarrhea!!! I'm all about the food:)
Today was a much better day as far patient care/routine. I felt in control & confident. I took the same 3 patients. An HIV+ women with brain metastasis, unconscious & responsive to stimulus. An elderly man with abdominal pain &an abcess & lastly an 61year old woman with an history of breast cancer. With c/o r hip pain/ & lower extremity weakness. She also had a decubitus on her right hip about 4x4 in size.
My biggest barrier with patient care was the language barrier & having to use an interpreter for every interaction.
The are no nursing rules here!!! I write my own orders, there no pumps! Everything's manual. No electronic nothing!!! There's no hierarchy of order. Everyone's equal on a first name basis. You have to be very creative!!! I've seen very interesting things here....
The Haitian nurses are... Dedicated/powerful/humble/smart/proud women. I have to take my hat off to them....
I learned two french words
Merci... Thank you
Wee.. Yes
Bonjour... Hello
I'm trying. I tried to learn "how can I help you?" but it didn't sound good:( I'm working on it.
So I'm all over this journaling. Making it a point to journal daily. I often have scatterbrain, which will be reflected. I'm using the notepad app on my iPhone to store my memories. Journaling occurs @ night in my bunk. It's my time to De-stress and put my thoughts out here in the universe.
I share a room with 4 ER nurses. 1 nurse midwife. 1 med student. And 1 ophthalmologist from Mexico. The ER nurses are from Sacramento & there pretty much trauma freaks!!! Typical ER nurses. But party girls. The midwife older & mellow. Maybe was a hippie in her time.
So sad news I death today. I happen to see her take her last breathe. History of HIV DKA & Steven Johnson syndrome. SJS is very rare & presents as an burn case. Sad day for the family & the Haitian icu nurse.
So at this point what do i miss the most?????
Wine,Brooke, hot water & fresh fruit!!! In no particular order... Lol!!!
There's tons of hype around a tropical storm coming this way. Monday into Tuesday. I'm going to pray. And I got my blessed oil:) I'm covered. On that note, goodnight.
Sent from my iPhone
1 comment:
Awesome trip Toya!! Love the pic's. No doubt at all you're destined for an humanitarian award! But from the Greatest Rewarder of All! Keep up the good work.
Post a Comment