August
on Rachael's VSO experience (Malawi), 28/Aug/2011 16:55, 34 days ago
Well another month almost gone! I honestly have no idea where the time has gone, I had a sudden realisation that it'll be time to go home soon and I really don't think the policies and procedures folder is anywhere near completion. I had a great suggestion from a friend that I put up some pieces of paper with suggested topics to be included in the folder and give everyone on the ward the chance to get involved and write their own policy then I can collect them all and type them so they are all in the same format and obviously formally credit the nurse who wrote it. Hopefully by doing this it will make the nurses more keen to contribute and the policies will be adhered to because they wrote them and it will also give those who contribute something to show for any future job changes or promotions. I spent this week away from the ward doing HIV/AIDS work so I'm hoping to get the list up this coming week and ask for policies to be completed by the 31st October. This will then give me all of November to type them and get them all the same and get the matron to look over them all. Once we are all happy I'll print out one copy and get the CNO to have a look, once she's approved them I will print out a copy for the ward, ETAT, the nursery and one for the CNO, paeds matron and nursery matron. Then at least I will have achieved something that will stay on after I leave!As I said earlier I spent this week on an HIV/AIDS training session. It was amazingly intense especially for someone who knew nothing about it. I think I probably had one session during my nurse training about HIV/AIDS and that's it. So this last week I had a crash course in it and now am an official provider of HIV/AIDS care and treatment and a level 1 prescriber of ARVs. It's slightly unfortunate that I suspect this won't be a skill I will be able to transfer back to the UK but it's been amazing to learn so much and to have acquired these new skills. HIV/AIDS was always something that kind of scared me on the ward because I never really understood it but now I really do understand hopefully I'll be able to make a huge difference to some of our HIV exposed infants.The 17th August was supposed to mark the 2nd Malawian protests and after last time VSO decided we should go in to 'hibernation' for the two days of the protests and depending on the situation prepare to be in hibernation for a week. It was really stupid up here the old house we used as a safe house was reasonably big but the lady is back in the UK at the moment and the rest of us live in really small one bedroom places. The prospect of all 5 of us cooped up in a one bedroom flat was not appealing so in the end VSO said we could split between two places. After all that hassle they decided to cancel/postponed the protests but despite that VSO still made us stay inside for the two days! Still I think all of us would rather they were over-cautious especially as last time many of us in the Northern region were caught up in the protests or the aftermath.I'm on holiday again from the end of September for 2 weeks, not really sure what I'm going to do yet. Think I'll probably head back to Zambia and do a safari but who knows. Gotta make a decision soon as I'd hate to spend it doing nothing! A friend at work is getting married on the 10th September so we have been invited to the wedding, very excited about that. It'll be so cool to see a traditional Malawian wedding (yes mum I promise I'll take as many photos as I can!)So now it's another weekend giving me 2 whole days to fill with fun and adventure. I've already been proposed to 3 times this week and asked out by 4 different men so I'm hoping for a new record!! It's very weird here, you'll be chatting away to someone totally normally and they'll often say I would like us to be friends and you think well OK friends means I'll say hi to you when I see you, maybe have a chat every now and then. But from the people I've met here apparently it seems to mean I'm in love with you and I want us to get married!! There are way too many reasons to mention on here why that wouldn't work out!! It started off as being kind of flattering but now it's just annoying. Makes it really hard to have any friends of the opposite sex and women here don't tend to go out and socialise or even want to chat outside work most of the time. Because before you know it these guys are asking to marry you or telling you they want you to go meet their family or go to their house for a chat because they really care about you (sick bucket!!)I'm hopeful I'll have good enough internet access to be able to post this soon!and that is all I have to say about this month.