Happy Nurses' Day!

So I didn't write yesterday. I was a little disgusted. For clinical, I was at Vernaza hospital in the intensive care unit. We went in and actually got paired up with nurses' aides first, so I was just helping a lady give bedbaths for a while. Now, this ICU is all in one big open room. Remember that in Ecuador there are not the same laws or resources. For example, the family must provide medications and such, so sometimes the scheduled ones are not given because the family hasn't been able to buy them and bring them in. I can even handle the fact that we had to use the same basin for water to do bedbaths, changing the water and cleaning it out (with water) between each person. We even changed gloves between patients. However, I was shocked the aide I was working with just kept rinsing off the same piece of gauze (our washcloth to bathe the people) and using it on all of the people. Gag, gross, unclean, ACK! Now I understand why one of my instructors says that if she's in a bad accident down here, she just wants us to send her on a plane home, and she'll be squeezing her own Ambu (oxygen) bag the whole way home. I did feel a little better when she started sending me to get fresh water and rinse stuff off, because I started using hot water and made sure visible pubic hairs were not still there... (still gross)

I did let my teacher know about that, and she let some of the infection control directors know, who were shocked. So, you can sigh a breath of relief to know that's not just standard protocol, but evidence that the concepts behind infection control are not understood. However, there is evident progess. (Hey, they don't use the same gloves for all the surgeries anymore!)

There's also other evidences of progress, such as some of the signs that I took pictures of the first day we were there. My favorite, and the first that caught my attention says "don't spit on the floor." Yeah, it's just on the wall up in the cardiac unit. haha The next one says, "please don't rest your feet on the wall, help with hygiene-the administration." Then, the notice on the door at the pediatric hospital reminded me of Arkansas. For those of you who don't know/remember, we had a glass door infront of the blue solid one, and apparently sometimes it was clean enough that people didn't notice it, and would walk right into it. Thus, "Warning! Glass door!" hahaha I know I said the spitting one was my favorite, but I think this last one might be tied for that rank. This is from the zoo/historical park. It reminds me of the funny interpretations of signs that Mark sent us all a long time ago...like hand dryers really being bacon dispensers. I'm still unsure on the meaning, though. No, to smoking and hamburgers, but feel free to pick out a monkey? Please don't give the animals cigarettes or greasy fast food, but your own flesh is fine? Or maybe don't smoke or eat here, but go ahead and bring your pet monkey and hand (like the Addams family?) I'm up to more suggestions, if you can decipher the meaning. :)

I quickly decided accompanying the aide was not new or useful for my educational experience, so I bounced around, talking to and following nurses, residents, and just trying to be really nice with the patients. One thing that really made me sad was how disrespectful some "higher ups" were to the aide. She was also sometimes kindof cold and threatening with patients. That's sad. Sometimes, though, I saw a lot of respect and good caring. I think it's hard for people to remember that each patient is really somebody's loved one....mom, brother, sister, someone, and that we should treat them with such regard as we would our own loved ones. I'm grateful to be in a program with peers who also understand that each patient and person is a beloved child of God. It can be hard to remember that in all of our daily interactions, no matter the profession or setting, but I think the more we do remember that, the more we treat others that way, making everyone's life more pleasant.

I then went with a group to teach CPR, supposedly to firemen. However, we arrived to find a room of mothers. Apparently the coordinating guy misinformed us. It was kindof funny. So instead of teaching advanced care life support, we taught basic life support. It was a good review and practice (though I was teaching some of that last Saturday, too).

Today is Nurses' Day! We all were at the Vernaza Hospital in the courtyard at a booth. We had the mannequins again and I got to teach adult, child, and infant CPR stuff to a bunch of people who came up. I might have thought it was a big waste for all 24 of us to be there all morning to do so little (there wasn't really work for all of us...but we got some reading for class done, and lots of people went to mass at the little cathedral behind the stand), but my opinion changed as I taught. I was surprised at how interested people were in learning. Nurses here go through a 5 year course of study, so I assume some form of CPR is covered, but in the States we have to recertify often, and it can still be confusing, as standards/recommendations are changed often. I think the best was when I taught a peditric nurse who had specifically come to the Vernaza (she works somewhere else) because she saw in the paper that we'd be teaching CPR, and she's always been nervous about having to resuscitate a baby when she's alone on the shift. That comment made me decide our hours of there were all worth it, even just for her. I'm glad we were able to teach many more, though. I love teaching!

(For those of you who are wondering, current standard is 2 breaths, 30 compressions...5 cycles and reassess for respirations and pulse.)