BABIES BABIES BABIES BABIES!!!

On Monday we visited all of the clinical sites that we will be at during our stay in South Africa. We went to two main hospitals and saw so many babies! Unlike the US the hospitals have wards instead of individual rooms. So one room is basically like a big open room with four to ten patients in it. It is really not like anything I have ever seen in the US. Then we visited our two volunteer sites. One was an orthopedic site and it was really sad to see all of the kids stuck and tied to beds in casts. The second site was the Red Cross Children’s Hospital, which is conveniently located right outside of my window! It was so busy there and it had all kinds of cases so I really think I’ll be able to learn a lot there. Two other sites that we will be at are orphanages for children who are in distress. Whether it is dying from a devastating childhood illness, parents dying or suffering from HIV, these sites take in these children. The seventh site is a clinic that people go into to get treatment when they don’t have healthcare. The site was very busy and I think we will be able to get a lot of hands on experience at the clinic.

            Today (Tuesday) was our first REAL day of clinical and I was in the hospital. I LOVED every minute of it! LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE! Ok you all get it! I was assigned to be in a ward with a wonderful nurse that had four children when I got there. The nurse showed me everything she was doing with medications, treatments and charting and by the end of the day I was doing it all on my own! The doctors were so helpful and let all of us nursing students go on rounds as they checked all of the pediatrics. I think I learned more today in clinical than I did in a whole semester at the hospitals in the US. When the babies’ parents left the ward I was able to hold the babies, I was in complete heaven of course. At one point the nurses and caregivers kept asking me if I wanted a break from holding a baby, because I held him for about two hours and he would cry unless I was walking around with him. The nurses obviously don’t know me very well because I don’t think I have ever been better! I am so excited to go back tomorrow!