I see that it has been way to long since I updated my blog. It has been a very busy time since the last post! I'm currently the only RN working on Men's Ward and so have been working hard, attempting to make clinical judgement calls that remain within my scope of practice while acknowledging that doctors are tied up in surgery and will not be into assess new admissions for several hours.
This week we have had a few very acute admissions including a motorcycle accident with suspected head injuries (he turned out to be alright). On Thursday, a young boy walked into the office with a large cloth drapped over his head. His brother handed me his ticket (chart) and before I could read much of the notes the boy, Paul, removed the material and an odour overpowered the office. Paul has third degree burns covering his half face, scalp and left shoulder. I could tell that the wounds had started to heal and that a significant infection had already set it. I motioned to the boy to sit up on the examination table and looked round for someone to translate for me....of course no one was around. I saw that their address was a village in Congo (DRC), so taking a huge chance, I greeted the brother in French...amazingly he is fluent!
As it turns out, Paul is a non-verbal epileptic who fell into a cooking fire 7 days ago during a seizure. He and his family then walked 2 days to Kalene Hospital as there are basically no hospitals in DRC.
Although, Paul has a huge road ahead involving 5 or 6 debridement operations followed by multiple skin grafts, its nice to know that I can communicate with the family fairly freely as they will probably be here for 4-6 months.
For the last few months there have been a few young boys in traction on our ward because of femur fractures. They have been so fun to have around, especially as they begin to walk. Grivan, 9, took longer than expected to walk after the traction was stopped because of numbness in the instep on his foot. He gingerly took step after step toward me, until one day he decided to do my morning round at my side! He is such a trooper and over a game of checkers, he gave me Lunda lessons! He would giggle the entire time at my accent, but at least he wasn't too critical! He went home on Saturday...so I'll have to look for another patient to teach me.
Two of our head nurses on away on holiday and sick leave, so there hasn't been enough RNs around to do night on-call rotation, but God is good! For possibly the first time in Kalene history, we have 6 doctors! This has allowed for a doctor on-call system to be implemented as well as a specific doctor responsible for each ward. I'm so grateful that I've had brains to pick over the last few weeks as I familiarize myself with treatment protocols for tropical medicine...as long as I figure this out in time for the RN exam!
I found out this week that I will be writing the exam on June 2 in Lusaka. This is such an answer to prayer! Both I and Emma need to write this in order to practice for 6 months on more in Zambia. The timing looked like it was going to be an issue as Emma needs to go to the UK in mid June and I am going on a safari at the end of May. The timing could not be more perfect, allowing for the least amount of flights and expense as I can just stay in Lusaka for a week.
I'm really looking forward to a visit from 2 great friends from Canada to go on the Safari ...the next couple of weeks will be filled with planning...and maybe some studying!
Well, that's about it,
Rachel
No comments:
Post a Comment