Nursing In Africa

Nursing in Africa is not like nursing in the United States. I learned this over and over again throughout this past week. One of the major things that I have discovered through talking with Nema and Felix, and also witnessing with my eyes, is that nurses here don’t always really care for patients. Although the ministry of the hospital I am at is Christian based, not all the workers have the same mindset. In America it is drilled into us nursing students’ minds- patient comfort, patient comfort- in Africa, its whatever the nurse feels like doing at the moment. This becomes a frustrating situation for the Kohols because they work endlessly to teach their workers to care for patients well and safely, but often they refuse to change. Since patients don’t play the “I’ll sue you” game in Africa, this makes a lot of things slide.

During a surgery Felix was performing I got to take the position of the scrub nurse and hold tools, wipe up excess blood, and manipulate the skin for better access. Although this may sound grotesque to you, it was an honor and fascinating experience for me.
A young man came in another day with a cut in his head, needing stitches. With the help of Felix, I got to anesthetize him and put sutures in. Thank goodness he was young, strong, and patient because the whole process that I have watched many times is a lot harder to do. Sewing skin in the head with a fish-hook looking needle and tying slippery suture-string with gloves on is challenging. I have great amazement at all the doctors who whip the process out with no trouble.

Nurses in America do not diagnose or prescribe. Nurses in Africa do. At the hospital, you can pay $1000 CFA ($2) to see a nurse or $2000 CFA ($4) to see the doctor, so many patients see a nurse. I found myself more than once this week sitting behind the consultation desk asking horribly worded questions in bad French (with my vast knowledge from my 2 weeks of study and a dictionary) to patients who must think I am crazy. I hear their situation, assess their condition, write in their medical records, and then have to come up with a diagnosis and prescribe them medicine. Fear not, there is another nurse with me helping me along, but still, the whole concept is so foreign to me. It is helpful that their pharmacy is small and most people need the same tests and exams done (malaria test, parasite test, infection test, etc).
I got to put my first IV in a child, and I have mixed feelings about the matter. It was very difficult for me to do something I knew would cause great pain and terror to an already hurting child, yet the aftermath was so encouraging. I can’t erase the picture from my mind of the much healthier little boy running around the clinic in sparse clothing the next day, holding his IV bag in hand with the tubing draped around his body, smiling.

I know I will have more non-medical news to pass on to you soon, so if this was not your forte, do not fear. My experiences are very great beyond the hospital walls.

God is teaching me more than ever how to live out the verse that says “Let us not love with words or tongue but in actions and in truth.” It is so hard not to be able to say all the things I want to to patients, but I am grateful more than I ever have that God is multilingual. I can always pray for patients, and know that God understands, even when they don’t. Nema has been my main teacher in this concept, and I love getting to watch her pray out-loud with the patients before many major procedures and births.

Thanks for all your prayers and encouragements you have given me!