UBCO Nurses in Zambia: Accomplishing our goals in our wrap up week

This last week Jackie and I were in the post-natal ward.

Since it was the last week at Lewanika hospital we focused on getting our donations out this week. We gave away make up, nail polish, baby clothing and baby care supplies. When we went to give out the make up, a lot if the women were unsure how to use it, so we showed them how to apply it. They really enjoyed this. It was nice to put a smile on heir face while performing make overs on them. Part of our nursing duty in Canada is to assist and make sure patients are washed and have good hygiene. Here in Mongu, it is left up to the family to assist with hygiene, so we thought it would be nice to do something for them that they normally wouldn't get. We feel that although this isn't a nursing duty, it was nice to take their mind of their illness or post-op complication. We felt that this made the women feel special in their own way. As health care workers it is important to think of the whole person when caring for them. Over the last 6 weeks we have seen a lack of nurse patient relationships, for example; health care workers here only inquire about health status and not the whole individual who has special needs, desires, preferences. Throughout our education, we have focused on patient centred care, and have learned how important it is for health, healing and well-being. When applying eyeshadow, lipstick or mascara on someone, they really enjoyed that. It was really nice to see them happy and not just as a sick patient.

We also thought it was really important to give our baby donations to the women who really needed it and can't afford these items. We worked with Rhoda, the head nurse to keep track of who we gave gifts to. Rhoda has a log book where she records the mothers with the biggest needs and how much she has given each mother.

This week our goal was to make sure charting was done and to teach about how to chart. It was great to see at the beginning of the week Rhoda teaching on the importance of accurate assessments and charting to the nursing and midwife students. This also encouraged and inspired us more to learn and teach with the students. With the students we were able to demonstrate a head to toe assessment on a mother and child prior to discharge. We felt it was really important for us to exchange knowledge. We were impressed with their assessment skills as well. We also taught the students DAR charting and charting by exception. It was challenging to set up charting due to lack of paperwork and to feel confident that charting would be used however, we did our best to teach them. Overall, we feel like we made an impression on the nursing students and staff about our charting skills and assessments. We feel we have accomplished our goals for the week on teaching and charting.

-Jackie & Gillian