On duty - first full week on the wards

So, you may reading back my posts it might seem as though its all play and no work? Well, I hope to rectify  that in this post. We are working our Scottish/English bums off out here! The current shift pattern is 7am - 5pm and we are doing about 40hours per week. The early start is made slightly easier when your commute to work is a short work from the house and nine times out of ten its a beautiful morning (makes a change from horizontal rain and subway body odour). The walk to work also involves a daily jaunt past all (to many to count) chickens with their extremely cute chicks following close behind.

So, we get to the ward just before 7 for the handover from the night staff before going to the morning report with all the other wards. This being Africa, the morning report is due to start at 7.15am and there is always people still drifting in after half past, not to mention the groups of chattering women stood right outside, or the people randomly singing. All in all, it makes listening to the report, near impossible. If anyone looks over at me during the report, I'm sure all they would see is my scrunched up face, eyes closed, slightly confused  - although nothing new there - face.

After report, we finally get to work and we find out what kind of day we are going to have.

I'm working on the male ward just now. It has its peaks and troughs, with some days being very quiet and other days you don't sit down for the 10 hours you are on duty. Its totally different from any NHS ward I have ever experienced and the nurses role here is quite different, which is taking some time to get used to.  A big difference is the patient contact. All the patients have a self appointed 'guardian' who takes care of all the personal care, feeding  - many of the tasks that a nurse or health care assistant would do in the UK. However, this is probably a good thing for me and the patients here as my chichewa (local language) is still a bit rusty, so my banter only stretches to "good morning" "how are you" "pain?" - so, very limited!

Despite having less to do in terms of personal care, the ward can sometimes be very busy. We often get numerous admissions all at once and it can be quite stressful running around trying to find all the equipment you need. The patient often comes in with many family members, so it can be a tight squeeze in the treatment room with all these people, the nurses, the clinicians and me battling for a space. Also, as in the UK, the men wait until the very last possible moment before seeking medical help and so they are often very sick. However, the staff here do everything they can for each and every patient in order to get good outcomes.

I'm learning so much being here and the staff on the ward are great teachers. And the patients are very accommodating of my dodgy language skills!

Here are some equally dodgy photos of me on duty in the male ward.

Cecilia, George and I receiving a very Malawian gift of sweet potatoes from a patient being discharged.

Male ward

Looking a bit worse for wear! Note...the pregnant belly is actually two pocket fulls of gloves and hand gel

The view across to female ward from the duty room in male ward.