First day on the job....

First day on the job....
It is currently 7:45pm on Wednesday, March 25th and we just got connected to the internet here in Kijabe!!! Kevin (Kenyan IT guy at the hospital) and I have spent several hours and phone calls on this, but we are up and running (slowly) now. Wow!....we are so spoiled with wi-fi:). I am going to write an update about our first day on the job and then post another for today.

Tuesday, March 24th

Em's 1st day on the job: Dr. Newton walked me to the Nursing School which is located at the back of the hospital property at 8:30 this morning and is pretty nice....really old building with no AC. I met with Anne Mulwa, the paediatric (British) tutor who was very excited to see me which was nice. She took me straight to my first class where I introduced myself to 35 Kenyan nursing students. They are about 18 years old and this is their second month of college...brand, spankin' new. We had some technical difficulties with my lectures but fortunately I brought my laptop and worked from there. I talked for 5 hours with a 15 minute break about Communication and How to take a Paediatric Assessment. They told me I talk too fast and needed to slow down, which stretched things out a lot more.
The students are so young, innocent, respectful, and attentive. I love my students back home and some of you might be reading this:)....but in regards to lecturing to a large group of students this was VERY enjoyable! No one was falling asleep or looking at me like they might harm me for taking time out of their day to listen to a paediatric lecture. I had so much fun talking to them and answering their questions....which were different then what I am used to. In Kenya, the people are typically very conservative and traditional. When we got to the sexual health comment, this was where the majority of the questions were. I have learned that it is very uncommon for Kenyans to get married before the age of 25ish. They typically have children soon after (I am thinking that birth control is uncommon here) so I have received many questions on why I do not have children since I have been married for almost 3 years:)....I am focusing on my career I say! In contrast, they know very little about sexual health and yet they unfortunately know a lot about HIV/AIDS. The rest of the questions focused on how to communicate with mothers who feel guilty about passing HIV onto their babies and are very angry towards the staff. I think my responses were appropriate and useful, as Anne agreed with me. During my break, I was invited to sit down with the other nursing staff...a midwife, the librarian, etc. and have some kind of tea concoction:) - come to find out it was Chai tea. I so wanted to cross my arms as to refuse drinking from the cup at the Catholic church since I thought they were giving me coffee (all I could think about was my poor belly), but fortunately it was so hot I could only take two sips and then it was time to go back to class.
I left the day feeling invigorated and excited about nursing! Anne was so appreciative and pleased with the lectures I had prepared and asked if she could use them in the nursing schools curriculum. I return home after 5 hours of talking to enjoy the hot day in Kijabe and prepare more lectures.

Jason’s first day on the job: Unfortunately, Jason’s day was not so warm and cuddling as mine was…often so typical even at home. His day in the OR went from 8am until about 5pm. He is working in a teaching capacity with the two anesthesia residents who are here for a month from Vanderbilt and with the Kenyan CRNAs. The third patient of the day had been involved in a motor vehicle accident about a week prior and sat in a hospital bed in Nairobi without being operated on. He came to Kijabe to have his fracture repaired and arrested on the table shortly after the surgery began. Jason said he was pretty frustrated as the monitors were not working and he could not get a rhythm on the patient. They shocked him and give him several doses of epi when they did discover that he was in PEA (pulseless electrical activity and a non-shockable rhythm). After 30 minutes of Jas performing ACLS he called the time of death. So when he got home that night and I asked him how his first day was, he stated “well, I had a guy die on me.” It by no means was anyone’s fault as the patient had a PE (pulmonary embolism) due to complications from his fracture, but still never easy. He had another difficult patient his first day….he went to extend the neck for intubation and met resistance. His first thought was “this guy has an anterior mediastinal mass,” which was in fact correct. He was able to still intubate using fluoroscopy but later in the day the tube came back out while the patient was being moved. Jason had to go in later that night to check on him. Needless to say, Jas had a very tiring first day and he could use some sleep!

I am going to post this one now and right some more later about life here in Kijabe. Thanks for reading!