One Clincal Week Completed!

Hello from Mongu!

It's Saturday morning here, it was so nice to sleep in today! We have all finished our first week of clinical, and I think everyone should feel good about it. When we got our tour of the hospital on Monday, I know I was pretty nervous about nursing on any of the wards, because everything feels so different from home. I was on the female med surg ward, and I'm really glad I did that ward first. I feel like I got a good idea of the most common diagnoses' here. I'm glad I got to first hand see what HIV, TB, and malaria is doing to the population here. Every day I got more used to the heat, the different smells, and the different practices of the nurses. The first couple of days felt so different because the nurses here have such a different care routine than we do at home, and they do things at their own pace. I enjoyed working with the African nursing students, because they were really curious about the way we do things, and we were also interested in the way they do things here. It was neat to compare procedures and practices.
Caring for these patients is so different than it is at home... partially because the diseases feel so new and different, and also because of the different culture. I find that it is harder to connect with the patients here because of the language barrier, but its also very clear here that a smile and a "Good Morning!" goes a long way. Everyone is really friendly here, and everyone says good morning! "MO ZEE LEE SHWANI!" Means good morning, and all of the nursing students and patients on the floor got a good laugh out of Steph and I when we at first couldn't really pronounce it haha.
Today we are spending our Saturday doing some errands. Internet cafe, Shop Right (grocery store), the bank, and hopefully some shetange shopping haha. Next week we are all spread out in our placements and trying new things. I will be at Lihana's feeding clinic for malnourished children where I will do home visits, teach children about food safety practices, and see patients as they come into the clinic. I will have my eyes out for the black spitting cobra snake because apparently it is around there lol... that could be interesting. All new adventures coming up!

- Rianne