So today was my first official clinical day here in Ecuador. Backing up, I will explain a little about how our little experience down here is supposed to go. The motto our instructors keep telling us is "be flexible" so everything is a little relative, but here is the basic plan. We are down here for four weeks. The first three weeks we will spend here in Guayaquil working in the hospitals and community and doing health fairs in the stake centers, etc. The last week we are going to travel up to Quito and spend time there and in Otavalo, and we will be doing more touristy and "fun" stuff.
For the three weeks that we are here in Guayaquil we "ideally" rotate through 3 different clinicals: a maternity hospital (Sotomayor), a general hospital (Luis Vernaza) and the community (with Hogar de Cristo). My rotation schedule is that I spend this first week in maternity, next week in the community and the last week in Luis Vernaza. We'll see how it actually plays out, but that is the plan.
So for this week I will supposedly be in Sotomayor in labor and delivery and post-partum. Today was my first day here in Soto Mayor and let me just tell you that it is incredible! If you thought that UVRMC cranked out babies, this place outdoes it by far! Between 80-100 babies are born in this hospital EVERY DAY! It is craziness!
It is a FACTORY! They have like a conveyor belt system, and I am not kidding. Well, there isn't an actual conveyor belt, but that is how they run the place. I will explain more later, but it seriously was incredible to see. So different. Like I mentioned earlier, we didn't come down here to change the way they do things, because really they are doing well with what they have and everything, but this is pretty unbelievable. I will put up a video of the system and explain a little more another day, but just know that it will be different than any birth experience I think any of you have ever had or seen.
For the three weeks that we are here in Guayaquil we "ideally" rotate through 3 different clinicals: a maternity hospital (Sotomayor), a general hospital (Luis Vernaza) and the community (with Hogar de Cristo). My rotation schedule is that I spend this first week in maternity, next week in the community and the last week in Luis Vernaza. We'll see how it actually plays out, but that is the plan.
So for this week I will supposedly be in Sotomayor in labor and delivery and post-partum. Today was my first day here in Soto Mayor and let me just tell you that it is incredible! If you thought that UVRMC cranked out babies, this place outdoes it by far! Between 80-100 babies are born in this hospital EVERY DAY! It is craziness!
It is a FACTORY! They have like a conveyor belt system, and I am not kidding. Well, there isn't an actual conveyor belt, but that is how they run the place. I will explain more later, but it seriously was incredible to see. So different. Like I mentioned earlier, we didn't come down here to change the way they do things, because really they are doing well with what they have and everything, but this is pretty unbelievable. I will put up a video of the system and explain a little more another day, but just know that it will be different than any birth experience I think any of you have ever had or seen.
Capri Scrubs!We were all pretty amused as well by the L&D (labor and delivery) scrubs they provided for us. They were the typical "OR greens," but like everything else in the hospital, true to army-like form, they were made of this heavy canvas and they hit us all about midcalf. You could tell that they were built especially for Ecuadorians--short legs and a short, boxy top. Hilarious.
The other random thing I will write about today is the fact that they basically have their gloves under lock and key. It is a labor and delivery unit, so you've got amniotic fluid and all sorts of other bodily stuff going on all over the place, and in the morning, my friend, Allie, was helping our professor with this one woman and she told her to go get some gloves on and get some for her too, and so she went to find them, and when she couldn't find them all over on the walls (like they are in the States), I went and asked at the nurses station and they basically gave me the third degree about why I needed them. I finally gave up and ran back to the locker room and grabbed some that I had packed in my bag. It is a different world down here. Good, but different.
The other random thing I will write about today is the fact that they basically have their gloves under lock and key. It is a labor and delivery unit, so you've got amniotic fluid and all sorts of other bodily stuff going on all over the place, and in the morning, my friend, Allie, was helping our professor with this one woman and she told her to go get some gloves on and get some for her too, and so she went to find them, and when she couldn't find them all over on the walls (like they are in the States), I went and asked at the nurses station and they basically gave me the third degree about why I needed them. I finally gave up and ran back to the locker room and grabbed some that I had packed in my bag. It is a different world down here. Good, but different.
Hanging out with our favorite "conveyor belt" friends (yellow=conveyor belt)
2 comments:
Love the capri scrubs! :)
Wow I cant wait to see that birth video! Do you think it will make me want to have a baby more of less?!!
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