Gettin' Down to Business

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Jan 14^th,

Today, we finally headed to one of the public hospitals in Chang Mai. I have mixed feelings about the hospital. I think going into it, my expectations were pretty low… so I was impressed with some parts and shocked by others. The ICUs were extremely nice and reminded me a lot of the intensive care units in America. The trauma ward (aka the unit that I will be on) was a single, open room with 22 beds side by side. “Contact precaution” signs were hanging from IV poles, even though the bed right next to them was only a two feet away. Some units seemed to be very clean and sterile, and other units were quite different. Most of the hospital is “open air,” so there is a constant inflow of fresh air from outside. For certain wards, it was required that we take off our shoes before walking inside and put on sandals or crocs. We have yet to figure out why this practice was only done in certain units. Lastly, the fire escapes in this hospital are massive slides that the patients ride their mattresses down in case of a fire. Other than these observations, I don’t have much else to report about nursing care because today was mostly just a tour of the facility. I will be spending the rest of the week in the hospital learning about more about what healthcare looks like here in Thailand!

In the evening, we went to our favorite market where I thought it was a good idea to spend 1,890 baht on a sweater (from American Eagle…oops).

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