Recent "Adventures" and "Challenges"
Wow! Has it really been so long since I wrote about the adventures and challenges of Chimala Mission? Days seem to run from one to the other so quickly. I will try to give you "high-lights" as the last 3 weeks could fill a couple of chapters in a book!
We have been blessed with presence of 2 Hong Kong medical students since the 11th of April. They have graduated from school, but have not yet completed their residency. They have been very active in the patient care at the hospital. Many times Grace, Tony and I are doing rounds at various times of the day/night. I hope the hospital doctors and nurses will be encouraged by their attentiveness and professionalism.
At night, Grace and Tony came to my house and helped me in preparing new charts for the hospital. The registration department has not been updated in many years and the hospital has been encouraged to do so by the government. We had about 700 student portfolios in the storage room....you know the folders with 2 pockets and 3-holes. Anyway, I designed a cover and the chart pages for new charts. The biggest draw back is finding more files from here or getting more shipped here from the states. We average 1,700 patients per month and approximately 900 of those are new patients. So we purchased some files which were available here in Tanzania, but they are of poor quality. We have 2,000 charts to start with and I am praying for the friends of Chimala to donate many, many 3-holed, 2 pocket portfolios so we can ship them here.
I have also been attempting to get the staff to practise better medical care. The nurses here have been reporting vitals signs as ----- Temperature. I was very shocked to find that not only do the nurses not perform a complete set of vital signs, but that the doctors are diagnosing and treating patients without them. Only one of the 5 doctors here does his own vital signs when he does rounds. Getting them to actually do what they know they should do is VERY difficult! I am meeting much resistance.
The second weekend Grace and Tony were here, we decided to take a day trip to Lake Malawi. The drive was very beautiful as the countryside was full of banana trees, tea farms and rolling mountains. The weather was also just perfect.
Just before the Malawi/Tanzania border, we took a turn onto a smaller road which then became like what I would call a "two-track road". Maybe you know the type. Anyway, the rains had been heavy in the mountains over the last few weeks so the rivers were high and swift. At several points we had to cross the road where the river was over the roads.
Here I am taking this picture as we drive through the water. Below is another river we had to cross.
At one point, we went across a dirt bridge-like area with river on both sides. As we headed to the Lake, we had a small amount of trouble crossing but made it. However, on the way back home, another big truck had gotten stuck on one side of this small bridge. There were many bystanders watching others trying to dig the truck out. Everyone kept telling us to go ahead and go through...that we could make it. Well we did not make it.
Luckily there was a second big truck who pulled us out! It was quite an experience. I was afraid we would turn over until I relized the mud was so high up on the car we really couldn't go any further over.
All in all, this was a great day trip. A time to get away from the stress of the hospital and talk about other things. I believe the delay and excitement of getting stuck was a blessing because it gave us something more "fun" to talk about for the day. And I want you all to know that at no time did I ever wonder if our driver, James, would get us out. James is so much fun and a great driver! We all had a great laugh!
Much more to share, but will end for now. The internet has been slow in the evenings, so it has taken me a week just to get this one posted. Check soon for more updates!!
We have been blessed with presence of 2 Hong Kong medical students since the 11th of April. They have graduated from school, but have not yet completed their residency. They have been very active in the patient care at the hospital. Many times Grace, Tony and I are doing rounds at various times of the day/night. I hope the hospital doctors and nurses will be encouraged by their attentiveness and professionalism.
At night, Grace and Tony came to my house and helped me in preparing new charts for the hospital. The registration department has not been updated in many years and the hospital has been encouraged to do so by the government. We had about 700 student portfolios in the storage room....you know the folders with 2 pockets and 3-holes. Anyway, I designed a cover and the chart pages for new charts. The biggest draw back is finding more files from here or getting more shipped here from the states. We average 1,700 patients per month and approximately 900 of those are new patients. So we purchased some files which were available here in Tanzania, but they are of poor quality. We have 2,000 charts to start with and I am praying for the friends of Chimala to donate many, many 3-holed, 2 pocket portfolios so we can ship them here.
I have also been attempting to get the staff to practise better medical care. The nurses here have been reporting vitals signs as ----- Temperature. I was very shocked to find that not only do the nurses not perform a complete set of vital signs, but that the doctors are diagnosing and treating patients without them. Only one of the 5 doctors here does his own vital signs when he does rounds. Getting them to actually do what they know they should do is VERY difficult! I am meeting much resistance.
The second weekend Grace and Tony were here, we decided to take a day trip to Lake Malawi. The drive was very beautiful as the countryside was full of banana trees, tea farms and rolling mountains. The weather was also just perfect.
Just before the Malawi/Tanzania border, we took a turn onto a smaller road which then became like what I would call a "two-track road". Maybe you know the type. Anyway, the rains had been heavy in the mountains over the last few weeks so the rivers were high and swift. At several points we had to cross the road where the river was over the roads.
At one point, we went across a dirt bridge-like area with river on both sides. As we headed to the Lake, we had a small amount of trouble crossing but made it. However, on the way back home, another big truck had gotten stuck on one side of this small bridge. There were many bystanders watching others trying to dig the truck out. Everyone kept telling us to go ahead and go through...that we could make it. Well we did not make it.
Luckily there was a second big truck who pulled us out! It was quite an experience. I was afraid we would turn over until I relized the mud was so high up on the car we really couldn't go any further over.
All in all, this was a great day trip. A time to get away from the stress of the hospital and talk about other things. I believe the delay and excitement of getting stuck was a blessing because it gave us something more "fun" to talk about for the day. And I want you all to know that at no time did I ever wonder if our driver, James, would get us out. James is so much fun and a great driver! We all had a great laugh!
Much more to share, but will end for now. The internet has been slow in the evenings, so it has taken me a week just to get this one posted. Check soon for more updates!!
Good to hear from you. It might help improve compliance if you can tell the nurses stories of two patients who appear to be the same except for their vital signs, and explain how treating them the same could be devastating because the vital signs show what their problems are.
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