A new group of students from South Dakota arrived this weekend and I had a wonderful time getting to know all of them. It’s a full house again and it’s nice to have people here who are so eager to be at the hospital and excited to learn. This morning in minor was SUPER busy. It seemed as if I glanced down at my clock and it was 9:00 and the next time I looked it was noon. We were removed tons of stitches from kids today which is always interesting and I had the pleasure (no) of teaching the new guys to put in a catheter. The gruesome injury of the day was an exposed Achilles tendon (pictures to come) from a man who had been bitten by a dog. He is diabetic so the wound really exacerbated before he came in for treatment. We had to use a local just to clean it and even then the patient was writhing in agony. We came back home during the afternoon lull and had a rest and then returned to the hospital around 6:00. Nothing much was happening this evening though so Joel and I took the liberty of teaching everyone to put an IV in. Admittedly I was really excited to teach at first and now my hands look a little like a pin cushion.
The big lessons from today:
1. You don’t know something unless you can teach it. A catheter is not rocket science but I felt myself getting increasingly nervous as all of these people are looking to me for instructions. Fortunately everything went really smoothly and I was it was good to have that really full feeling of being able to bring information to the front of your brain.
2. In all situations I should aim to respect the dignity of my patients. It is easy to fall into the trap of a scientific type a mind and just say “hey this is a catheter change” but really, it’s a man who has to expose himself to a complete stranger and trust that I am going to take care of him. Today I found myself being hyper aware of this sort of thing because there were a 15 Mzungus in minor and all of us are peering down at a woman who had a cyst removed from her breast. She came in for redressing but I found myself asking the boys to leave when it was over to help her get dressed again. It seems like it could be a small measure to take but im just thinking, would I want all of these people in here for this?
Here is the link for the donating to the orphanage: http://www.indiegogo.com/rebbeyjuniorschool
We are really close to making the goal of $1000 and I want to thank everyone who has already donated. Joel was able to go measure the orphanage and is planning to buy supplies so this group can get the project started. Thanks again!
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