COUNTRY: Nepal
PROGRAM: UniBreak - Kathmandu
PROJECT: Community Healthcare Projects
WRITTEN BY: Julie Stocks
Time to wrap up our last week of placement, with a city break to top it off.
The final week of placement endured a mixture of emotions, lots of cups of tea, good chats and loads of laughs. The last three weeks has brought new friendships, some of which we will definitely miss, and most definitely be keeping. They brought so much more to our journey over here. Establishing these relationships with the fellow nurses and doctors brought not only trust and respect on a personal level but also a professional level, which has been a privilege. Having the opportunity to learn from some very knowledgeable people will be something we will cherish, take home this information with us and pass on to our colleagues back in Australia.
Our final days went about with our normal daily routines of the ward rounds with Dr Swasti, helping the nurses with vital signs and medications, but also summing up the more prominent diagnoses that we saw throughout the hospital. In the outpatient clinic the majority of cases were abdominal pain, normally resulting in gastritis and ulcers, severe UTI’s, diabetes and asthma. Some of these patients were admitted but most were sent for x-rays, ultrasounds and then home with medications.
In the general ward, there was a high incidence of COPD, which includes cases of bronchitis, emphysema and asthma. We assumed this was due to the high pollution in Kathmandu, but found out a lot of the low socio economic status community cook in the street with open fires, hence inhaling high levels of smoke. The treatment for this was similar to home, using bronchodialators, nebulisers and oxygen therapy. The main issue here was that there was only one in the whole hospital. Unfortunately the effectiveness of the treatment was not as efficient as we would normally expect. This brought up many questions regarding the funding and the distribution of the funding within the hospital. And like so many other public health sectors it goes through many many levels of boards to get anything approved. A slow and lengthy process. It was great to get some perspective on how the system works over here and made us really appreciate how well we have it back home.
One of the highlights of this week was also dropping in to Tilganga Eye Hospital or aka The Fred Hollows Foundation. We got to meet one of the communications staff and he advised us to come back the following morning. Here we were greeted and taken on a complete tour of the hospital and saw where these phenomenal eye surgeries take place. A joint project with the World Health Organisation, their main vision is to prevent and control blindness in Nepal and beyond. At the Kathmandu clinic alone, they see up to 1000 patients per day, from simple eye testing to cataracts and cornea transplants. Getting to see the amount of work that goes into this organisation was great and also knowing that our mate Fred had a lot to do with it. Definitely another eye opening experience.
After our goodbyes at our placements, we were happy to top it off with a weekend in Pokhara. The perfect place to escape the madness of Kathmandu. Friday afternoon, we were on our way!
Flight delays are a normal occurrence in Nepal as the weather has to be just right to fly amongst the Himalayas. We were waiting, waiting, waiting. And then they announced that our flight was cancelled; we were devastated. Turns out that Friday the 13th wasn’t our lucky day!! But we got there eventually, flying out on Saturday, clear skies and we were all happy again! We saw an amazing sunrise at Sarangkot, which overlooks the Annapurna Range, relaxed with massages, boated down the Phewa river and watched the sunset at the world Peace Pagoda. The breathtaking views were nothing short of surreal and the photos just do not do this special place justice. Taking in this magical place for two days was just not enough and I think there might be another trip planned here very soon!!
Pokhara is known for some of the most dangerous roads in the world, and we were lucky enough to be part of this! Imagine skinny dirt roads on the side of a mountain with buses climbing up and buses going down. No one beeps to warn each other, and the drivers decide to give it a shot at getting past each other. Fail! Two buses stuck and no room either side to move, or we are going over the edge! Eventually, we all got out and it took about half an hour, with the help of 12 men to figure out how to move these buses. Lots of Nepalese muscles moved the van and we were on our way. Some of us were not laughing so much at the time! But this has just added to what we have endured so far, weighing up the good, bad and hilarious.
Next week we start our health education weeks at the schools so will be updating you ASAP! Till next week....
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