New Schedule

Thursday I started a new schedule here at the hospital. My days have been quite varied and made up of lots of random things – but for the next five weeks, while the Cedarville team is here, I have a set assignment of where I’m supposed to be and what I’m supposed to be doing – at least between the hours of 7:00 and 4:00. (That is, when I don’t have to be in the office)

With all the visitors here, we have three groups: “P.A.s,” “Pre-Meds” and “Nurses.” There are three people in each group and I am in the nursing student group. Each group will take a rotation through one area of the hospital for a week, and then move on to another area. The first week, my team is in Medicine Homme, Medicine Femme and Pediatrics. Because neither of the other girls understand French or Lingala, so guess who had to translate? Yours truly. Complete with all my mad ninja skillz in Lingala. NOT. 

The girls were learning a new system, trying to understand/be understoood, realizing how different medical work is here and having to adapt to less-than-ideal circumstances, among other things. They’re nursing students, with a lot of the training and knowledge of how things SHOULD be done, so their first day was pretty confusing and frustrating.

This was my first time to be officially working in the wards and dealing with the medical charts, so I had to learn fast how it all worked, take vital signs, pass meds and translate for the girls and the nurse on duty all at the same time. I think it was a frazzling morning for all three of us. I had to go back and forth between several buildings to get various things. It would help if we had more than one scale and more than one oxymeter. Oh well. Such is life here.

The morning passed quickly, and I learned some more about nursing care. Kristen, who is in her third year, kind of acted as an instructor to Malia and I – but we also divided up patients to get things done quicker. I did my best to translate between the girls and the patients and the girls and Liliane. I definitely sensed the patients’ frustration at the fact that none of us could speak Lingala very well, but I was doing my best!