The NHTH Team has wrapped up their second day of teaching! At the end of the 12-hour day, Anita took a little time to capture some thoughts and reflections on the day:
"Teaching Day 2 was another wonderful day! We had over 40 people again from different places, including a group (pictured above) of military nurses and doctors from a military hospital over two hours away—they were phenomenal! I was so touched by the fact that people would drive that far to attend our training. Dr. David, one of our Ugandan hosts, is also a military doctor and had worked with several of them in the past so I think they might’ve been the first people he invited!
"A critical part of CPR is getting a defibrillator on the patient as soon as possible. And we teach this with our practice automatic external defibrillators (AEDs). Most cardiac arrests occur because of ventricular fibrillation, which is a 'shockable' rhythm—so many lives are saved because of rapidly using a defibrillator.
"I asked the Day 2 group how many had defibrillators in their hospitals or clinics and out of 43 people, only one person said that they did. In researching to prepare for this trip I read a recent article that stated, of the hospitals in Uganda that do have defibrillators, less than half of the nurses were trained to use them. This military nurse promised to teach everyone in his hospital how to use the defibrillator.
"It’s gut-wrenching to know that these life-saving tools are mostly not available here. It’s very hard for us to conceive of that because in the US there are defibrillators in airports, schools, malls, places of worship, all over our hospitals, in every ambulance—they’re everywhere. In Uganda, they just don’t have them.
"Today the group was maybe a third to one-half physicians and the rest were nurses. As in many countries, Ugandan nurses are not respected for the critical role they play. So I took the opportunity to share how important it is for physicians and nurses to learn together and to work together and respect each other.
"I shared how important it is for nurses to have a positive self-perception and to feel the value of the incredibly important and honorable work that they do. It was really wonderful to have both doctors and nurses at these classes and for them to train side-by-side and learn together. I hope these days of teaching stick with them and help each group to see nurses in an elevated light.
"It was so nice, and a bit funny, to hear that at the end of the classes one of the doctors said to Dr. David, 'These ladies have answers to all of our questions! They really know A LOT!' I’m sure they are not used to taking cardiology and diabetes classes from nurses!
"We sat at lunch today with a young woman who is graduating from nursing school in May. She was really glad to be able to have this class before she started working. Everyone has been so grateful, so kind in their words about what a blessing the teaching has been… it’s really something to be here.
"And again we had a lot of fun this afternoon on the floor with everybody rotating through the different stations learning CPR, including how to use and AED and practicing on the different types of manikins. There was a lot of laughter, and it was great to see everyone supporting each other!"
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