By Valerie King<\/i><\/p>\n
Today is my first day at Margret Marquat Hospital. For those that know me this is not my area of
\nexpertise. I am a community based nurse.
\nI am much more comfortable going from hut to hut than to try to serve a purpose
\nin an acute care hospital. I had hinted
\nat my desire to stay at the outpatient health center but Maura thought my
\nassessment of the nursing care at the hospital would be helpful. <\/p>\n
We have been asked by the new medical
\ndirector, Dr. Lucy, to do an evaluation of our experience at the hospital. She wants to make some changes so our input
\nis solicited. We are treated very kindly
\nby the nurses but there are significant deficiencies in the nursing care that
\ngoes against everything that we have been taught as an American Nurse. The contents of our report are too lengthy to
\ngo into in this Blog but suffice to say patient safety, infection control and
\nissues related to competent and compassionate nursing care were some of our
\nbiggest observations. <\/p>\n
Later on this
\nevening I created with Maura and the students, a 4 page document that we will
\nuse to present our findings to Dr. Lucy.
\nI am reminded of the comments of my teacher and friend Dr. Geoff
\nMcEnany-Phillips when he taught me about evaluation. It is important to be truthful but we have to
\nbe mindful of the stakeholders in this situation and try to present our
\nfindings in a thoughtful and professional manner. We create the document over a
\nbottle of wine and with very insightful comments from the students. I am not sure how Dr. Lucy will use the
\ninformation but we felt it was our duty to be advocates for the patient but
\nalso to help promote professional development of the nurses in Ghana.<\/p>\n
To help
\nwith our goal of professional development I gave a 2 hour lecture today at the
\nKpando Health Center on a few topics. I
\npresented a lecture on the assessment of the geriatric patient and also
\ndiabetes mellitus. The audience of
\nmostly nurses but some other staff seemed to be very much engaged with the
\nlecture. I had to slow my rate of
\ntalking and to try to use appropriate and understandable terminology. I tried to lose my New England accent. <\/p>\n
The time flew by and I was encouraged by the
\nthoughtful questions that were asked by the participants. I have truly come to respect these Ghanaian
\nnurses. They work with such limited
\nresources but have such potential for improved care if only they are given the
\neducation. Throughout my lecture I keep
\nrepeating that they have incredible power as nurses to make a difference in
\ntheir patient’s lives. I think the
\nnurses could play a larger role in the care of the patients but am limited in
\ntheir knowledge and sense of responsibility when it comes to patient outcomes. I pretty much told them that they are much
\nmore important than the doctors (my apologies to my physician colleagues). I think there is a vast difference in the way
\nthat Ghanaian nurses and American nurses are educated based on my
\nobservations. <\/p>\n
I would like to see these
\nnurses claim their autonomy and professionalism. Change comes slowly. I think having the UML nurses work with them
\nopens the door to comparisons, questions and emulation of behaviors. We have witnessed an obvious change in the
\ndemeanor of the patients when the UML nurses address them with respect, touch
\nthem and provide the level of compassionate care that is the trademark of the
\nAmerican nurse. I have such personal pride in the accomplishments of the
\nstudent nurses from UML. We have had
\nmany thoughtful conversations at night about the comparisons of the two
\ncountries and their ideas for improvement.
\nI am proud to be a graduate of UML and I am equally proud to be a nurse
\neducator who will have a role in creating the future American nurses. I will end now on that positive note. There are still many more stories to tell but
\nagain I am burning the midnight oil and tomorrow is another busy day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Valerie King Today is my first day at Margret Marquat Hospital. For those that know me this is not my area of expertise. I am a community based nurse. I am much more comfortable going from hut to hut … Continue reading