Day 3 - First day of Clinical, Spanish Lessons and Welcome dinner!🌎
Welcome to our blog! Today was a fun filled day of practicing some of our skills and gaining brand new experiences!! Our group has been divided into 3 smaller groups of 8 students: one group going to the community, the second going to the maternity hospital and the third going to acute care hospital! We all had ample opportunities to "get nursey"💉💊 and take advantage of these amazing clinical experiences!There were three different locations included in our day today.
Hospital Gineco Obstretrico de Neuva Aurora (Obstretical Hospital)🍼👶
This hospital is a brand new facility developed within the past year. It is government sponsored with numerous different units for specialized areas of obstetrical nursing. These included various neonatology (levels for very sick children to premature babies), an emergency room meant for women who are in active labor, an operating room for women who undergo cesarean sections and a unit for teen mothers who may need a little extra support. This hospital sees about 5000 people in outpatients per month, ranging from 30-35 births per day. Something that we found very interesting and inspiring about this hospital was that there has been no maternal deaths since it opened last year. SO AWESOME! Another interesting bit of info we learned was that some of the nursing staff who breastfeed their own infants at home would breast feed some of the the babies at the hospital if they didn't have anyone else to do it. All in all, this hospital was gorgeous and we felt very privileged to have learned from the wonderful staff at Neuva Aurora.
Tierra Nueva (Community clinic)
At the Tierra Nueva Community Centre, we focused in on 4 different units: the Geriatric clinic👴, physiotherapy for developmentally delayed children, occupational therapy and dentistry. In the geriatric clinic, we danced our lives away💃. These elders definitely had a ton of energy that they were ready to share with all of us Canadians. We were lucky enough to pass out some sugar free candy to these elders, as a lot of them are diabetics. Something that we learned is that here in Ecuador, insulin is rarely imported because of it's high expense 💵. There were only a few individuals with walkers, which we also found interesting as the majority of our elders in Cape Breton have mobility issue! Way to go Ecuadorian elders!!The physiotherapy unit for developmentally delayed children section was an awesome learning experience. We got to work with children and toddlers who weren't developing at the normal rate for their age. The physiotherapists would work with these children by encouraging them on how to crawl, improving on their tactile reflexes and range of motion exercises.
The Occupational Therapy section was also a great unit to be on. We worked a lot with massage and heat therapy for individuals with things like rotator cuff injures💪. We also used hot wax and hot packs to help with their circulation. Last but not least was in the dentistry section. We saw patients receiving braces and fillings and help out with the staff on anything they needed.
Novaclinica (Acute Care Hopsital)
At the Novaclinica hospital, there were four different units we focused on. These included the ER, ICU, OR and NICU. In the ER, individuals would walk in off the street with whatever problems they might had. A lot of the time, the paramedics would be the ones who would take the patient's vitals and their medical histories. The nurses would then initiate intravenous fluids, take necessary blood work, charts on the patient's condition, etc. In the ICU, we got to see a few terminal cases. Because this is a private hospital, the patients are 100% necessary to pay for their treatment. A lot of the patients were on ventilators and we helped out with re positioning patients and providing necessary suctioning.😷 The operating room was slightly different from home. The temperature was hotter, a lot of the operating room doors would not close, there was no negative pressure in the rooms, and a lot of the surgical instruments they used were reused for upcoming surgeries. Red flags were raised here but we also found out that the rate on infection at this hospital is almost nonexistent. Something that was different at Novaclinica was that they always had their windows opened. This is rarely seen in Cape Breton so we were all very intrigued by this! So neat to learn so much about this different culture!!
Spanish lessons
If there was one thing that we all learned today, it would be that the language barrier is a difficult feat for us. It really is hard to communicate with patients when you barely speak their language. We were lucky enough to have Spanish lessons this afternoon, which we all found very beneficial and informative. A lot of us were able to work with our teachers so that they could help us out with common phrases we would use in the clinical setting.📝
Welcome Dinner & Donation Sorting
To end our evening off we had a beautiful welcome dinner at a French Bistro. This included some interesting but delicious choices like popcorn soup (Yes, I said popcorn soup🌽) and chicken/fish entrees. It was a beautiful evening where we could all relax and discuss our days. When we got back to the hostel we decided to work on getting a lot of our donations sorted to find out what hospitals would need what supplies. We wanted to again send out a HUGE thank you to everyone who helped us out with donations, as these supplies are definitely being used by those who need them!👜
Highlight reel:
- Belinda was given a wet cheeto from a resident at the geriatric clinic and choked it down like a champ.- During our Spanish lessons, Debbie showed off her skills by knowing that the word camera is the same in Spanish as it is in english, you go girl!💁📷
- When crossing the streets, we must sprint for our lives.
- Smiling goes a long way, especially when there is a language barrier😀
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