—By Sandra Vega, Senior—
After interning several weeks in Vietnam this June I have managed to gain the trust of the nursing staff and my patients by using language in all its forms to provide nursing care at the Hospital of Orthopedics and Rehabilitation in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. My week one challenge was introducing myself to the nurse of the day for the unit. I always had a paper written in Vietnamese ready to show the nurse. Some days were made easier when I would be able to follow the same nurse and if they spoke some English.
Each patient has been very kind as I have attended to them. Saying “hello” and asking “How are you?” in Vietnamese was the beginning. In addition, the support from the nurses has been tremendous. There were days during my free time when the patients and/or family members would surround me and would begin to converse with me. Body language has been a huge help as well as Google Translate.
After learning where I am needed, my day begins at 7:30 am in a different room distributing medications to the families. By 8 am, we are preparing and administering medications. Sometimes I’m in room six, other days I start in room nine and jump around the rooms to help others nurses. Usually one nurse, has to give medications to as many as three rooms, which is as many as 30 to 40 patients by 9:30 am. Generally a patient receives their antibiotics, followed by the pain killer. Saline is soon given after the completion of the Pentoxifylline. If the patient does not receive Pentoxifylline, they will receive the saline right after the pain killer. Medications are stopped as needed and upon completion. The process is repeated for the afternoon.
After medication administration, I continue to provide wound care. Wounds range in severity and healing, usually all caused by the common local injury, a motorbike accident. Each wound is cleaned differently either with saline, sterile water, povidone iodine, or a combination of the saline and povidone iodine. After wound care one day, the nurses allowed me and others to practice direct intravenous medication administration with saline on each other. Everyone was excited, and I was able to help everyone with explaining the procedure and technique.
In addition, I have had the wonderful opportunity to follow acupuncturists during my stay at the hospital. In the morning, acupuncture is used mainly for patients with pain problems and in the afternoon, mostly for patients who are dealing with some sort of paralysis such as stroke patients. However, the acupuncture therapy delivered at the hospital is a mixture of traditional Chinese and Western medicine. In traditional Chinese medicine, the needles are placed in specific parts of the body along meridians. The physician moves every needle in different directions with a specific technique to provide stimulation to the nervous system. However, due to the increased amount of patients at the hospital, the physicians have limited time to spend with patients. This is when Western medicine comes into play. In order to provide stimulations to the specific areas as in traditional acupuncture, the physicians use electrical stimulation. A small amount of electrical pulses is produced by an electrical stimulation device at the patient’s meridians. This acupuncture electrical stimulation therapy lasts around 10 to 15 minutes. During the time I followed the acupuncturists, I was allowed to provide the patient with the vitamin B12 injections which increase blood flow and healing, as well as remove the acupuncture needles.
The experience at the hospital has been wonderful and I look forward to talking about my experience with the organization, Resurge International, soon.