TIA - This Is Africa

(Written on Wednesday, posted on Thursday - thanks to the internet cutting out - TIA)

Yesterday I was on the pediatric unit and it was a difficult place to be. While the culture shock of awful hospital conditions and a lack of resources is becoming less shocking and is instead becoming the 'norm', my heart is still broken so many times a day. On pediatrics there are a ton of kids crammed into the smallest of spaces. There are many cribs, but very few beds. If the child can fit in the crib, that is where he or she will go even at an older age, because once the beds run out, the kids end up on thin mattresses on the floor. And let me tell you, this hospital is so far from clean. The floor is not somewhere I'd want my child to be placed. Although, the cribs/beds aren't much better and certainly don't meet safety standards. There are very few bedsheets here and the beds don't get properly cleaned between patients.

Since pain medication isn't used very often, the kids are quite uncomfortable. There are quite a few burned kids and it's so difficult to see them suffering. There are little fires everywhere here; in the villages the kitchens are outside where they used fires as stoves, and there are also fires alongside the roads where people cook things and sell it...incredibly unsafe for the kids who are running around, hence all the burns. It's strange to see that pain isn't well controlled here, because in Canada we are taught that it is the 5th vital sign (the first four being blood pressure, temperature, heart rate, and respiratory rate). That is how important we see pain control to be. When patients are in pain, the healing process and mental status of the patient is impaired.

The kids are slapped when they cry too much, and some of my classmates have even seen them get tied down to the crib/bed. So incredibly not right!! I cannot even imagine doing that to a child!! Oh and when the kids are upset, the nurses sometimes mimic and mock them.

Today I was in the emergency department. Nothing too interesting came in but for the sake of the Ghanaian people that is definitely a good thing! I did learn some things though and would predict what the doctors would order. Since our practical skills are not being challenged here due to a lack of resources (very few skills can be properly performed here) I try exercise my mind a little :)

I can honestly say that I would NEVER want to be a patient in this hospital. If something happens to me while I'm here, my classmates can care for me (we have lot's of medical supplies :)) or if it's really severe, I'll fly to Europe. One of the doctors told me the same thing - he said "It's pretty bad when I am terrified of getting admitted into the hospital that I work in".

Tomorrow I'm going to a clinic where people can get surgeries done for free. It's run by Dr. Abdulai who gets a ton of donations from other countries to provide the free hospital. It's way out by some villages and in order for people to be allowed to have the surgery, the village that the individual belongs to needs to build a 'recovery hut' on the hospital property and needs to agree to care for the individual in this hut after surgery since there isn't very much nursing care provided post-operatively. Many people from each village use the hut so it's definitely worthwhile for them to build it. From what I hear this doctor is amazing and has done wonderful things for so many people. I'm spending Friday in the ICU at the Tamale hospital. I'm curious to see what goes on in ICU when I feel that substandard care is going on on regular wards...

On other notes...we're definitely getting used to the Ghanaian lifestyle. The power going off randomly and the water going off for 24+ hours isn't quite as annoying as it was before...I'm getting used to bucket showers. Handwashing laundry is not fun (especially big things like towels and bedsheets) but it's just how life is here. Today we had to direct our cab driver to our guest house which was sort of like the blind leading the blind but it worked - no GPS's here! Almost getting in car accidents MANY times each day is becoming less frightening (but please, if you're the praying type, pray for road safety for us!). Dealing with intense heat is getting a bit easier, sort of...having a pool to retreat to every day has been a huge blessing. Waiting an hour or two for food is just how life goes. Getting out of proposals is getting easier too. We've found nutella here and women sell bread on the side of the road so we've consumed a lot of both these things in the past while :) As nurses we use the abbreviation TIA to stand for Transient Ischemic Attack (aka mini stroke) but here we use it with the meaning "This is Africa" - and it's something we say many times a day!

Our instructor told us about a little place here (in a hut) where a man labours all day and makes custom jewellery so I spent a good many cedis there in the last couple days! So stoked to see how everything turns out :) We've also spent many hours at the cultural center here in Tamale and have made some Ghanaian friends there. I got a dress made too but from what I hear from the other girls who picked theirs up already, they don't turn out very good. I'll know by Friday how mine turns out!

On Sunday my mini-group of 4 is going to Gushegu where we will spend 2 weeks working in clinics and hospitals. It's a 3 hour drive from here (northeast) and we'll be staying in the hospital residence with FREE accommodations!! So nice! :)

I miss so much about home but love so much about being here.

Till next time!