Leslie Blog 2

Blog 2

Arriving in Chitre, I was happy to find that we were staying in a nice neighborhood with cute little houses. Although there isn’t hot water or good A/C, the houses were more than I expected. The town of Chitre has a mall and American fast food, which I didn’t think we’d find. This made me curious as to what to expect at the clinics and schools we were to visit. The clinic we went to had a variety of services. I would compare it to a clinic of the health department back in the states. I was in the vaccinations department the first day. There were a lot of babies getting their required immunizations. I was reluctant to give any of the babies shots being that I haven’t taken the pediatric course yet. There were some adults that I could have given shots too, but from what I understood, the nurse I was with didn’t feel comfortable letting me jump in there and give shots. The methods they used to administer the shots were different, such as pinching an IM injection and aspirating IM’s & Sub-Q’s, which was interesting. I feel that the nurses did not know what we were capable of and so they weren’t comfortable letting us administer the vaccinations, especially on the first day.

I enjoyed myself while in the clinic and was able to perform 3 PAP smears, something that I would not have been able to do doing my Community hours in the states. Although I felt that I wouldn’t be interested in OB/Gyn, my experience here made me realize it wasn’t as scary as I thought it may be. I also enjoyed my home health experience. Home health is something that I’m interested in and I feel that I was able to see a different side of Chitre when going on house visits. Every day of the week, something different is done and different patients are seen in home health. On the day I went, the nurse didn’t seem to have many duties, mainly just blood pressure’s. The doctor did the head to toe assessment and wrote prescriptions. It made me feel like the nurse had a more “patient care tech” position during our visits.  But like I said, they see different patients with different issue’s on different days, so perhaps they do more hands on nursing on a different day.

The rural hospital with the psych ward was definitely an experience. It really lacked the resources that I’m use to in the states. In the ICU, they only had one heart monitor and two ventilators. It made me appreciate the resources that we have to work with. For some reason, I was incredibly nervous doing simple things in the ER. I think it was the language barrier and the thought that they do things differently than I’m use to. The IV that I started was done without gloves. That in itself was nerve wracking. I did end up getting blood on my hands and on my scrubs. This is something that has never happened before. I had to focus on completing the IV and then worrying about washing the blood off. Being that there was information regarding the prevalence of HIV in the area, I had to REALLY focus on completing the task at hand. It didn’t help my nerves much. I did enjoy the ER experience though and thought the nurse I worked with was great. 

The psych part of the hospital was interesting. Apparently, my name is quite entertaining in the female psych ward. I do believe that from here on out, a joyful cry of “Lessss-lee” will make me smile. Although going to a psych clinic can be a little awkward at times, I think that we made the patients day by being there. They really seem to enjoy our company.

My overall impression of the clinic’s and hospital that I saw was that they are in serious need of resources. But I do believe that the nurses are great and do the best that they can. Although our methods may be different, I believe that nursing is nursing and the general concepts are the same. The practice boils down to resources available and individual education. This experience has made me much more appreciative for what’s available to us and our ability to help those in our care.