RebeccaBarrows

Today is our last official day in Thailand. Our flight leaves at 11:15pm tonight, so we are going to head to the airport at 8pm. Today we completed a program evaluation with the BCNC staff. We all gave such positive feedback because this trip was truly the best planned trip. After the evaluation, we headed to a small community in Chiang Mai to help junior BCNC nursing students with a home visit. When we got there, the students were busy cleaning the entire home and getting ready to bathe two of the three bed ridden residents in the house. It was heartbreaking to see the situation in the house: an 81 year old man was caring for three bed ridden residents, two of his sons and his wife. His sons both have cerebral palsy and his ... read more

This morning we had a nursing conference about domestic violence, where four different nursing colleges attended and students presented on the topic. Carly, Sarah and I presented from Messiah College. Overall, I learned a lot about domestic violence in Thailand and the nursing actions and resources related to domestic violence cases. This really showed me how important screening and prevention is with domestic violence. The nurse has numerous roles when dealing with this issue, including giving resources to the survivors and assisting in any way possible. The presentations all went very well and were extremely informational! After the nursing conference in the morning, the 9 of us Messiah girls went to a nearby lake for the afternoon. We laid on the dock and tanned for the majority of the afternoon and it felt so nice to ... read more

Today was easily the best day of this entire trip! We visited the Maetaman Elephant Camp all day. To start off the day, we watched the elephants perform a show for us. They did numerous tricks and activities, including painting pictures with their trunks! It was so creative and fascinating to see the elephants do these cool tricks. After this, we were able to interact with the elephants. I got to sit on an elephant’s knee, hug an elephant and sit on their trunks! It was very cool, and I got so many cool pictures to share. After the performance, we rode on the elephants’ backs. I was paired with Maggie, which was comforting! I enjoyed this experience as we rode through the water and up the mountain road. Walking through the water was the coolest ... read more

Today was my last day on the labor and delivery unit. I really enjoyed my experience here with the amazing nursing staff and patient population. Although I did not see a delivery today, Maggie saw a c-section delivery of premature twins and I was able to see the twins after the delivery. The unit got busy toward the end of our time there today, mostly because of a foot-link breech scare with another set of premature twins. Being in labor and delivery for this week has taught me a lot. First, I determined that labor and delivery is not my true calling. I still feel the excitement of the unit, but I don’t feel at home with labor and delivery. Second, I determined that neonatal or infant care is my calling. I got to see premature ... read more

Today on the unit, Carly, Maggie and I asked our instructor from BCNC if we could be more involved with the care of the mother and newborn before and after delivery. The instructor was very pleased to allow us to contribute more to the care. I was able to participate with newborn care once the baby was born. For example, I gave two medications to the newborn: Vitamin K injection and Erythromycin Ointment over the eyes. I was thrilled to have this experience because my passion lies in newborn and infant care. We observed and witnessed a couple of births throughout the day, so we felt busy and occupied for the whole day. One thing that is very different here in Thailand than in the US is that the nurses deliver non-complicated births. Also, nursing students ... read more