Hospital Visit

Me with my students. We were practicing a fire drill. 

I've finished my second full week of teaching. We take turns teaching modules. This week I taught basic Anatomy and Physiology. Ms. Shawn taught Math Calculations and Ms. Mai taught Measuring Vital Signs. The students also take English class twice a week with Mr. Nyan with Mike assisting. 

The students seem to be catching on pretty well. They are engaged during lecture and activities and are eager to please. They are also very sweet and quick to laugh--mostly at my attempts to speak Burmese.

On Friday, my American partner Shawn and I left school to take a tour of the three local hospitals (all private) where our students will have their clinicals for the last three weeks of the term. Ms. Mai and I will take our groups to the City Hospital,  Ms.Than Than will take hers to Mandalar Hospital,  and Ms. Shawn will take hers to Nyein Hospital. 

All three hospitals are part of the Mandalay Private Hospital Association, who employ us to train the students to first be care aides and then on to a degree as a Registered Nurse. Just like in the US, there is a big shortage of nurses and nursing instructors. The Myanmar government just gave permission for private nursing schools to open (previously they were all government run) so that's why we're here. 

Both City and Mandalar Hospitals are in the middle of big expansions. City Hospital will go from 100 beds to over 300 when they open the new part of their hospital in the next couple of months. The new section is quite nice- private rooms with A/C for all patients. There are three levels of patient rooms (not counting ICU) with a regular room starting at around $25/day to a deluxe going for around $65. Everything else is extra- meds, treatments, etc. Families bring in food. ICU is of course much more and they are in desperate need of critical care RNs. 

At the end of November Shawn and I will  do a critical care update for the ICU nurses at all of the hospitals. We’ll also train them in Basic Life Support and Shawn will teach intubation with the newer medical officers.

We haven’t visited a public hospital yet, but apparently if you find yourself in the hospital in Myanmar you will want to be in a private hospital. I told Mike if I should happen to find myself in the hospital that he'd better spring for the deluxe room. I also told him he better get me some propofol if needed (see below.)

I’m so excited to get to know my Burmese colleagues. Many of them have been nurses for a very long time and they are treated with much respect. Everyone we met was very sweet and so excited to have us working with them. 

A few interesting things about the hospitals we visited-

-The nurses wear different color longyis  (the ubiquitous long wrap skirt that everyone- men and women- wear) depending on their jobs. The matron who is the top nursing administrator wears mustard. Sisters- department managers- wear light blue. Charge nurse wears green and new grads wear red. Some still wear the cap. We’re having bright green longyis made for us. Shawn wants to get us caps too- we'll see...

-Everyone wears flip flops to work. When you go into the Operating Theatre (OR) or the ICU, you take off the flip flops you wore to the hospital and put on a pair of the communal flip flops on a rack just outside. I guess when in Rome…

-They have been doing renal transplants at the big government hospital in Mandalay for the last 5 years. 

-City Hospital has a Cardiac Cath lab and two balloon pumps.

-No sedation for intubated patients. There were only two intubated patients in the ICU at City Hospital the day we visited. Three ventilators for the whole hospital. The new ICU will have about 10 beds so they are working on getting more equipment and nurses trained.

-It seems like every patient room we saw had at least 10 family members. Myanmar culture dictates that the family embrace the sick and watch over them 24/7.

-The only IV pumps I saw were in the ICU. I guess I’d better brush up on my drip rate calculations.

-All of the hospitals had fairly new looking MRI, CT Scan and Ultrasound equipment.

All in all it was very impressive. I look forward to learning more.

Shawn and I with Nursing administrators and the Chief Medical Officer at Nyein Hospital. In purple is the Dean of our school, Dr. Mar Lar Win.

A room in the new addition at City Hospital.

Matron  with a staff nurse at City Hospital

Bed Control? This board is in the main lobby- no such thing as HIPAA.

Bed in the new ICU at City Hospital