Kristen Kenny’s Blog

Nurses’ Station and Eye Clinic

8/29/08

This Wed and Thurs I was in the out patient department (OPD) nurses’ station. This is where patients get checked in and their vitals are taken. Also there is a treatment room where they do injections, ear lavage, suturing, wound care, and any emergencies go into that room. I spent about a day in each area. The day I spent in the nurses’ station I took vitals and wrote down patient information. It was good though to talk with the patients a bit and see why they were coming in. Also there were a group of student nurses there. We talked about their schooling and even talked about some health issues like diabetes. The clinic is busiest in the morning and that is when the most nurses are there. There are three shifts at the hospital the morning being from 8-2. So at two most of the nurses left but I stuck around.

We had three emergencies come in a row. One was an older man who had been hit by a car. I am not sure exactly how they got him to the hospital. He had a laceration on the back of his head as well as both a broken arm and femur. Because of the multiple fractures we had to send him away to the main hospital. We just cleaned up his head wound, gave him some pain meds, and sent him away but not without him paying for the medications and bandages first. They were going to call an ambulance which it seems that few people use at least in this area. But I think they ended up just taking him in a taxi. I can’t imagine how they go him into the taxi with his broken bones. It must have hurt. The next patient was a young women crying and doubled over. She was having left sided flank pain. We were thinking kidney stones. She got admitted. The last was a young boy with a huge scalp laceration. There was a large flap of skin hanging open. The head nurse stitched him up. The kid was scared after receiving injections of pain meds so when they tried to put in the lidocaine he was screaming and kept jerking his head and arms around. It made things very difficult and almost dangerous it seemed because the needle could get flung around. He was doing more of the same when the nurse was finally suturing his wound. The other nurses didn’t seem to be trying to calm him down so much as getting angry with him and trying to shame him into submission. I’m not sure of what if anything would have calmed him down.

The next day I was in the treatment room. Patients seemed to come in spurts. I helped do some dressing changes and took out some stitches. We also had some injections. A woman had what looked like a bunion on the lateral aspect of her foot. She said it bothered her and wanted something done so the head nurse scraped off some of the skin. Then he removed what looked like a sebaceous cyst. Two emergencies came in while I was there. A man ran in with an older man on his back. He plopped him on the exam table and then left. The man was drowsy and not responding but breathing. Apparently alcohol was involved and his blood sugar was very low. Other than that he turned out to be ok. The other patient was a woman very sick with malaria and her newborn baby.

Friday I was in the eye clinic. The ophthalmologist comes three days a week one of which he performs surgeries. I helped check some patients in which is when the do the vision exam. Then I shadowed the doctor while he saw patients. They also have a optometrist that works in the refraction room and gives people glasses. We saw some typical eye complaints, glaucoma, conjunctivitis, allergies, people in need of glasses. On Monday evening they do eye surgery so I think I will stop by and check it out.

After I get off from the hospital I usually come home, eat, read, and go across the street to the girls’ house and watch tv. Pretty laid back. One day we did go into town to go to the big supermarket so I could get some food to cook for dinner. We went to one of the few supermarkets that sells a lot of imports so there was a lot of food I was familiar with. I try to cook dinner for myself but for lunch I have been eating in the canteen. I have tried a number of Ghanaian dishes. They often have rice or yams with different sauces and either chicken or fish. I tried benko the other day which is sort of a cross between a tamale and a dumpling. It is tamale shaped and made out of ground corn and plantains. You can eat it with different sauces. Also I tried fufu which is similar to benku but stickier and mushier and made out of cassava. You have it with soup. The sauces have a little kick to it that I like. They also have very tastey fruit, mangoes, pineapple, bananas, plantains, guava, etc. People usually eat with their hands (only the right hand though) which I have tried a couple of times. I haven’t been eating many vegetables though so I need to work on that.

After this weekend I will be half way through my trip. It has been good so far and certainly interesting. I am looking forward to seeing patients next week.