Greetings!

So the whole blog thing is a dud as the Internet here is not able to handle much beyond email so I'll just give you a quick rundown of my 3 days on the wards. There are 3 basic ward A, B and C with 8, 12 and 14 beds respectively plus an isolation ward for TB patients (D ward) and a 10 bed overflow, E ward.  Before E ward is used each of the others must be full which here means that each bed has at least 2 patients and if they are small enough 3.  Each patient can have 1 family member at a time with them. This person sleeps on a mat on the floor, takes care of the patients toileting needs and food provisions.  At night outside the hospital compound can be found additional family members sleeping on mats ready to take their turn at the bedside or cooking over open fires so the patient will have food.   If patients need blood they must supply their own donors so often docs will rarity for blood but it may not be given for a day or at all depending upon if a donor shows up.  Each morning the benches outside the donation area are filled.  All patients show up malnourished with malaria, cries under 20 and knocking on death's door because they wait so long or the 4 hour trek is a deterrent.   In 3 days time I've seen 2 DKA, a neurogenic bladder hydrocephalus, mumps, TB, 2 viper bites, and the agonal breaths take by  2 patients where as I checked the brachial artery of one baby was gently told that CPR was not done here.   Aside from being on the ward I've been meeting with a woman working on nursing projects.  One of these is how to get nurses to do more patient assessments and actually fill orders in a timely way.  (For example one of the patients I saw today was a 2 year old admitted for malnutrition and malaria and had had 200ccs of milk ordered per day and had not gotten any in 3 days).   My afternoons have been spent during an assortment of things    Yesterday I spent assembling and setting up 2 cardiac monitors and an neonatal bed/warmer for the OB ward so that I can train the docs and midwives on their use this afternoon.  What tomorrow brings is a mystery.  Love to all, Laurie