5-25-11 3rd service day

Today we got to go to the hospitals. Even though we weren’t going to do any work as nurses, I was excited to see the difference between the two hospitals. Also, Dr. Polly Kloster, the nursing leader on this trip, asked me to lead one of the presentations at the Danang hospital. I was nervous and excited.

Women’s Hospital

The first hospital that we went to was the Women’s hospital. It is a 50 bed hospital where they do deliveries, C-sections, hysterectomies, assist with fertility, and abortions. Abortions in Vietnam, I was sad to hear, are well accepted. Vietnam has a limit to the number of children you have. You are only supposed to have 2 children.  If you have a third child and work for the government in any way, your pay is reduced and you will no longer be able to have any promotions. Abortions then occur when they are going to have more then two… also, having a boy is preferred over having a girl. Abortions may occur when they are on their second, and it is not the preferred gender.

The hospital was a fair size with 6 floors. There were two birthing rooms and two rooms in the OR. I don’t remember seeing too many nurses at this hospital, however, one of the doctors there gave us a bit of a tour. I was grateful to see and hear about the women’s hospital. I got to see a C-section… which made me never ever want to get a C-section when I have a baby. I’ve heard that the procedure was about the same in America as Vietnam.

I saw the tail end of a birth, and learned that in Vietnamese culture they take the placenta home and bury it under a tall tree, so that after the baby grows up, lived out his or her life and dies, they will be able to find their way home again.

I saw a lot of family members in the room with patients and learned that the family plays a major role in taking care of the patients, even while they are in the hospital. The family members have to bring in food, because the hospital does not provide food for them. Also, the nurse to patient ration is about 1:15-18 on the medical surgical unit, and 1:5 in the intensive care unit. Comparitively, in the US it is 1:4-5 on the medical surgical unit, and 1:1-2 in the intensive care unit. Because of this fact, family members need to help the patients go to the bathroom and clean up, because all the nurses would have time to do is pass pills.

Danag Hospital

The Danang Hospital

After our visit to the Women’s hospital we had had our lunch and set out to see the Danang hospital. One of the nursing students got to see how this hospital was run first hand. He had slid onto a hard surface in the pool, and had a large laceration on his abdomen. Apparently the care in the ER was not that good. The doctor went from one bed to the other, wearing the same gloves, and not doing hand hygiene in between. Also, one of the patients looked like they were dead… and he would go from that bed to the others. They also began inserting gauze that was not sterile into the students abdominal wound. It was at that point that they decided to go somewhere else.

Anti Smoking poster that was up in the hospital

We didn’t get a tour of this hospital. The other two days the groups got to tour and talk about the differences between this hospital and hospitals in America. Today Dr. Polly Kloster was going to present on the Concordia nursing program, and I was going to present on “healthy people 2020.” We had a number of translators there who would translate for us each time we paused. I think that there were about 200 nursing students there to hear the presentations. I had been grateful that Polly was going to go first. That way I would be able to see how it’s done. However, at the last minute they decided that I should go first. Yipes!

I was nervous, and had no experience at giving a presentation that needed translators. Slowly throughout the presentation I learned that you need to sum up the idea as simply as you can. Near the end I remember seeing Polly nodding at me, as if to say “you got it!” That made me happy and relieved. She did a wonderful job presenting on the nursing program. It was fun to see all the changes that they have added at Concordia. There are so many extra things there that I didn’t have when I went to school. Her presentation made me excited that I had graduated from that program.

After the two presentations we took questions. One of the students asked how much nurses in America make. Then, one of our students asked them how much nurses in Vietnam make. They seemed hesitant to answer. Final, one of the translators spoke up. They told us that the first year that they are nurses they have to just volunteer, because the hospitals can’t afford to hire them… after that they make around $70 a month. This was shocking to us. Now we knew why a lot of them were asking us about how they could be nurses in America, when we told them it paid well and we made an average of 72,000 a year.

Evening

The sunset when we left the restaurant

After our presentation we headed out to dinner. Today it was at the Blue Whale, a beautiful restaurant right by the beach. I remember that my meal, a fish, was looking at me from where it lay. I had a few bites, but I was beginning to feel a bit squeamish.

At lunch, some of us were given a ticket for a free ride to Hoi An where there was a night market. The bus left at 7pm, and would be picking us up at 9:30pm. This was the first time that I really got to shop for souvenirs. Hannah, Miranda, and I stuck together and went through the shops. We tried on outfits, and shoes, and picked up knickknacks. The people there were so friendly, and were very good at convincing us to buy things… it was hard to say no when they were trying to sell you something. I bought a shirt, two dresses, and shoes for myself! I also got a handful of souvenirs for friends and family.

9:30 came too soon, and when there was about five minutes to go we all began running back to the bus with our goods in hand. It seemed like forever that we were running, and even though it was dark out, the humidity and heat was still there. We got to our van in time, and enjoyed the air-conditioning on the trip home.

Back at the hotel we enjoyed some Ice cream. I had a shake, that was more like sweet chocolate milk by the time I got it, because all the ice cream was melted. I saw the size of their large Pizza… and it looked smaller than a small pizza in America. Now it is time to sleep. We will travel to Hue tomorrow.