Starting work

So time seems to have flown a bit since I started here and I haven’t had much time to email or post (sorry mum!) but I will try and catch up a bit now…

The hospital that I’m working at was originally founded in 1997 by an Italian NGO called Emergency.  It was started to treat victims of war and landmines, so was set up as a surgical trauma hospital. As the war ended and now the amount of landmine injuries has thankfully decreased somewhat, the hospital continued treating trauma patients, the majority of which are from road traffic accidents, in particular motorbike accidents. As it no longer fit the description of what Emergency does and the government didn’t want to take it over the handa foundation took over the hospital in 2012, and that’s who I am working for now.

 The hospital has an ED, an OT which I don’t know much about yet, an ICU, a men’s surgical ward, a women and children’s ward, and a ward for patients with infections. There is also an outpatient medical clinic, a lab and they are currently building an endoscopy unit. For CT scans we send the patients to one of the clinics in the area.

We are also about to open a new wing which will have medical ICU patients and medical patients. As we start to bring medical patients into the hospital we are trying to do some teaching about medical patients and their needs, we are also trying to implement some of the structure and infrastructure and standards of the kind of hospitals that we have come from. This is a very interesting task and there are many challenges involved, not least of all my lack of khmer language skills (although I have my first lesson on Thursday!!).

 I feel funny being respected in this hospital and listened to by nurses with so much more experience than me, simply because I am white and ‘western’. I forgot to tuck my septum piercing away this morning for the first few hours and no one commented… I wonder what people think of me this funny western woman with no idea of khmer language or culture. I am really keen to learn more, to be able to talk to the nurses and patients and get a better feel for who they are and how they work.

So anyway, my role as I am learning, is to work with the existing ICU and the new medical/ICU wards, their NUMs and staff to implement new policy, start talking about nursing education and how we can get that going, try to fill any gaps in education with the staff, and assist the NUM’s to become NUM’s as this is a relatively new role here, as well as trying to create a culture of critical thinking, problem solving, self reflection and improvement and respect for one another.

This is all intensified I guess by the fact that almost everyone we are working with has lived though the khmer rouge, it’s hard to imagine the difference between the three young Australian and American nurses who I’m pretty sure all grew up in comfortable middle class ways and have only a few years each of in hospital clinical experience and our Khmer counterparts whose lives I don’t know much about yet.

I was pretty intimidated by the job when I first heard what it was, and rightfully I feel, I do not have the qualifications or experience to be doing this kind of thing, I know my knowledge is lacking and there is a lot I need to refresh and work on, but I think that the value I have is mainly in the fact that I have worked in well run, high standard, well resourced hospitals with a strong idea of professional nursing, and that experience is what I have to offer and try and teach about at the same time as hopefully learning some skills form the staff, and yea… working together I guess.

I decided to just be positive and do my best, I know many people who could do this job much better than me, but I am here and I am of no expense to the hospital, so I will just do my best! I have decided to just be positive and try things and believe in myself, I have had a lot of lovely feedback from my friends telling me that things like that I have value because I am level headed and listen to people, and so I am listening to them and trying to trust in myself and my ability to hopefully do a half decent job!

Sorry this is so long and scrappy! My head goes slightly at a million miles an hour with these long intermittent pauses, I have also been having fun making new friends, I went to Siem Reap for the weekend and love riding my bike around Battambang, especially on cool days with the wet season rains. It’s lovely staying with Nat, her house is lovely, and I miss and love you guys so much!

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