January 9th: Morning Ceremony…Nakornping Hospital (Female Medical Ward)… Khum Kantoke

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The day started with some delicious fried chicken and morning glory which is a Thai vegetable. After breakfast we participated in morning ceremony again and it was very nice. It was nice to have to opportunity to pray for the students and for the school as they gave a moment of silence after honoring Buddha. Being on my hospital unit, the female medical ward, was a great learning experience. I was able to see so much and compare the patient care in Thailand to that in America. I was paired with the injection nurse for the day and we watched her draw up medications. One the big differences in giving medications in Thailand is the amount of preparation that has to go into giving the medications. The nurse has to draw up a lot of different medications and mix them into injections or IV bags. The nurse we were with did not label a lot of her medications and when she was giving them she only flushed the line after administering the medication. At one point the line infiltrated after while she gave the medications, so the patient did not receive that medication. We also got to see how the patients are fed using a glass syringe to inject the feeding into the patient’s stomach. Patency of the NG tube is not checked before administering the feeding. The nurses do not change their gloves when going from patient to patient and all waste is thrown into different trash cans. We were able to feed some of the patients after observing how it is done and I enjoyed doing this because I felt useful and like I was being helpful on the unit. Today we also helped to count medications and put them into the different patient bins. We rounded with the doctors, residents, and medical students and there was one resident who could speak very good English and she explained each patient case to us and what the updates and new medications and tests each patient was being ordered. That was a great learning experience! The diseases and problems that patients face here are very similar to those faced in the United States. After talking to one of the nurses on the unit, nurses in Thailand face similar problems to those in the United States. The nurse explained that they have a nursing shortage and there are too many patients assigned to one nurse at a time. There is no way there can be proper patient care because of the ratios. The nurse also talked about nurse burnout and how many nurses quit after only a few years because of the demanding nature of the job. It was interesting to hear the same issues being talked about by a Thai nurse. While on the unit we also got to see an arterial blood gas be drawn at the bedside and we saw suctioning too. After leaving the hospital we went back to the dorm and got ready to go to Khum Kantoke Restaurant. Our Thai buddies came over and helped us get ready which was so sweet. Only one of my buddies could come because the other one had too much homework. We listened to music and had a great time together. They did our hair and makeup and helped us to tie our skirts. They were so generous in giving us all accessories to match our outfits. We took so many pictures and it was so nice to spend this time with my buddy. I really enjoyed the food at the restaurant and the entertainment was so much fun! The Thai dancing was so graceful and precise which is very representative of the Thai culture.

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