Blogs from Chiang Mai, North-West Thailand, Thailand, Asia - page 13

Today the weather was sunny and hot although I had to spend most of my time inside. I turned down the opportunity to see a spinal surgery to go back on the labor and delivery unit. Sadly it was a very slow morning on the unit. I was only able to observe one delivery right before leaving for lunch. A lot of the moms on the unit had complications/high risk pregnancies. Some of these complications/situations included epilepsy, twins, SVD, and hydrocephaly. The hydrocephalus case was very interesting. The doctors plan for the birth was for it to be vaginal! Once the baby descends into the birth canal, the doctor will tap into the babies head and release the fluid so that the baby can safely make its way down the canal and into the world. This ... read more

January 8th Back to work (kind of). This morning, we participated in the nursing students' morning ceremony. It is focused around respecting the teachers, the flag, and Buddha. Christianity is growing in Thailand so there is a moment of silence for Christians who would like to pray which I thought was interesting and thoughtful. We got a full tour of the college and saw the different simulation rooms. They are very similar to the ones at Messiah. After the college tour, we toured the hospital that we will be working in called Nakornping Hospital. We saw about 7 different units, including men's medical, women's medical and surgical, trauma, emergency, pediatrics, and labor and delivery. The hospital is made up of many different buildings that you have to walk outside to go into different units. It was ... read more

First day on the L&D unit, and what a day! I saw three deliveries total, which was really awesome. Overall I had a good experience. Thai nursing students are all trained to be midwives, so the nursing students were the ones delivering the babies. I thought this was so neat. I was actually kind of jealous because I have to go back to school for at least 3 years to be a midwife in the States. The staff were all very friendly, including the nursing instructors from BCNC and Chiang Mai university. They were both willing to answer our questions and also asked us about ourselves. There was probably a total of 15 or 20 nursing students on the labor unit, which made it really hard for me to help out and get hands on experience. ... read more

Today I woke up at 0645 and felt tired but I was so happy I was able to sleep through the night! I put on my clinical uniform for the first time in a while and was ready for the day at the hospital. We went down and ate breakfast which was some rice with chicken and some delicious glazed donuts! It was cool to have some breakfast food that was similar to what we would have at home. After eating we met our Thai buddies and walked down to have the morning ceremony with the students. As I was talking to my Thai buddies they were telling me how they were up until 3am doing homework for the first day of classes which was today for them. They told me they have microbiology, anatomy and ... read more

Today is our travel day to Chiang Mai, Thailand. I’m going to be honest, I’ve been panicking a little bit. It’s been an emotional overload processing going abroad once again. I haven’t left the country since the fall of 2015 during which I studied abroad in Rwanda, Africa. My experience was rough to say the least, but if I can manage to make it a few days without food (and no money to obtain food) as well as deliver stillborn babies day after day, then I can do just about anything. I am worried about compassion fatigue as well as an overload of unmanageable emotions. It has taken me a fairly long time to adjust and feel safe in my surroundings. In addition, I can sense myself getting more and more easily annoyed by first time ... read more