Week 2 of Clinical Placements in Cambodia

COUNTRY: Cambodia
PROGRAM: UniBreak Groups
PROJECT: Nursing
WRITTEN BY: Willow Durrington

Tuesday was our first day of clinical placement and initially we shadowed clinic staff and observed their practices. My group was made up of Lindy (our clinical lecturer), Hayden, Vince, Lucy, Lisa and myself and we started out at the Ang Chagn clinic. Our week started off slow as there weren't many patients. We found if we arrived at the clinic earlier we were able to see more patients and as the week progressed the staff warmed up. During the week we also visited the local village school to provide basic health education on wound care and Dengue Fever. At the clinic we undertook patient assessments, antenatal appointments and attended childbirth education classes. We had the opportunity to care for basic wounds with Lucy and I attending to a man who had been hit in the head with a bottle and Vince and Hayden looked after a man whose roof had collapsed on him. Whilst at Ang Chagn, Lucy and I plus our honorary midwife Lisa were lucky enough to help out with the delivery of two beautiful babies, one boy and one girl (who was named after Lindy - much to her delight).

The second group, made up of Amy (their clinical lecturer) Mia, Lisa, Carly, Josh and Netty started out at the Krabei Riel clinic. This is their overview of their time at Krabei Riel. The staff welcomed us warmly and involved us in the care of their patients. They were as keen to learn from us as we were from us as we were from them. Whilst at the clinic we provided an inservice on adult and neonatal resuscitation which included some role play. Some highlights from our time at the clinic included Amy's minor surgery on a school boy who had a metal pin stuck in his arm; Lisa's cannulation of a woman with dehydration; many wound dressings and lots of vaccinations. The staff provided many days of entertainment and were very interested in our marital status and the single nurse Somuon frequently said "no money, no honey, no baby" and she expressed on the last day that next time Mia would be back that she would be pregnant. We also made friends with the local man whose restaurant we ate at at lunchtime, he served us some interesting food - one soup which may have contained intestine. He particularly loved telling us about his time in America and his children there.

The third group, made up of Carolyn (their clinical lecturer), Emily, Maddie, Rowena, Gabby and Sam. This is their overview of their first week at Svey Chek: We began our first placement at Svey Chek, a little clinic that's very involved in it's surrounding community. We also started teaching dental hygiene in the local school which was primarily run by Rowena due to her background in health promotion. While at the school we organised to use our fundraising money to buy all the students a toothbrush. The clinic was not overly busy this week but the staff were friendly and eager to include us in their daily routine. We were able to do patient assessments as well as some wound care (on a dog bite) and became familiar with some of the the common ailments and treatments seen in rural Cambodia. Everyone has had lots of practice with IM injections through immunizing the very cute Cambodian babies.

Friday was a half day for our clinic placement and we set off to Siem Reap Domestic airport around 15.00pm to catch our plane to Phemon Pehn at 16.50pm. Well that was the plan anyway but instead our plane was delayed. After multiple ice creams, transferring to a loaner plane from Vietnam airlines and sitting on the runway for fifteen minutes waiting to take off, we finally made it to Phemon Pehn at 20.20pm. Met by our bus driver at the airport we set off on a harrowing ride through the streets of Phenom Pehn which involved some very illegal turns and mobile phone calls. We finally arrived to the Rodeng Resturant where we enjoyed a delicious meal - the Rodeng restaurant was part of the Friends restaurant franchise which served as a training restaurant for former street youth. Lindy unfortunately was unwell and continued by tuk tuk to our accommodation, the Frangipani Living Art Hotel, where we met up with her later.

After a night of much needed sleep we met in the hotel lobby to enjoy a buffet breakfast - which gratefully included food other than toast and eggs (our usual while at the Jasmine Lodge). After breakfast everyone except Lindy and Maddie (as they were unwell) set of by bus with our English speaking tour guide to visit the Killing Field, S21 and the Royal Palace. Our visit to the killing field and S21 stirred some emotional reactions as we learnt about the history of Cambodia under the leadership of Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge regime. After lunch we set off for a tour of the Royal Palace, where we were able to marvel at the beauty of the paintings and buildings as well as the gold, jewels and silver floor inside the Pagoda.

Once back at our hotel we had some leisure time in which many people chose to indulge in a few cocktails while enjoying the view of Phenom Pehn from the sky deck.
At 7pm everyone except for Josh and Rowena who where unfortunately sick squished into tuk tuks and braved the traffic to head out to dinner at the Friends restaurant. Our dinner consisted of spring rolls, salad, Khmer curry and tarantulas. Everyone but Lindy tried tarantula and found them to be quite tasty with the general consensus being they tasted like fried chicken or crab. Carly even braved her fear of spiders to give them a try.

Sunday morning involved another buffet breakfast and a shop at the Russian markets for those who weren't sick, before checking out of our hotel and heading to the airport. We arrived to the airport to find our flight had been cancelled, but we had been changed to another flight leaving at the same time or so we hoped. After more waiting and ice cream we finally headed back to Siem Reap. The afternoon/evening involved a mixture of resting, relaxing, shopping, massages, manicures, pedicures and cocktails - as well as some group meetings to prepare for the next week of clinical placement and health education sessions.