Here I am writing at the end of our fourth week in South Africa, and I can’t believe that we are more than half way through our trip! For these past three weeks in CCS I have been volunteering in a local medical Clinic in Ashton, a nearby town that is smaller than Robertson. time that I have spent there has been very enjoyable and educational. One of the main focuses of this clinic is the treatment and diagnosis of TB and HIV. This is the area that I will be spending most of the remaining three weeks of my volunteer work. For the past three weeks I have been helping a nurse in the clinic, the receptionist at the clinic and the sisters. While helping in this clinic I have learned so much about the health care system of South Africa and have come to realize the wonders our health care in the US, but that is for a later story.
I mainly worked with a certified nurse and works in the dressing room. I was quite confused as to what this was when I first arrived at the clinic because I know KPA does not have one of these rooms…. This is the room similar to the casualties in a hospital but not as sever. It is the biggest room in the clinic and where I have spent most of my time. Her specialty is in wound dressings, and so in her room I help her attend to the various wounds that come into the clinic. Also this is where I have learned to take blood pressures, administer oral vaccines to babies, weigh the babies (which is not really hard you put them on the scale), learn about the green cards, and learned all about the different types of burn and wound cares. Every Wednesday is baby day, this is the day that the babies must come in and get weighed once a month. The mothers must bring the child’s green card which is their portable record. Everything must be written down on this card because if the child goes to another clinic this may be the only record that the doctor or nurse sees and so to ensure not repeating a vaccine. It seems to me that having multiple files gets really complicated because sometimes one of the two files would not get recorded and then you had to back track. If a child was born under 3kg then they had to come in weekly until the child is over 3 kg. Then they just come I monthly until they are 18 months. At given months the child is given vitamin A supplements, deworming pills, and various other injections that are given in the states. I have given the six week old babies their vitamin A supplements as well as gotten the opportunity to read their files and record the weights and measurements of the child.
Also helping in the dressing room I have been able to assist her with many burn victims. Because it is cold this time of the year and they don’t have central heating many people use hot water for heat and thus results in the large number of hot water burns. A twelve year old girl came in with hot water burns all down the back of her leg right after it happened and I was there with her to apply the burn shield and the other ointment to the legs. There is also a large population of people with sever diabetes and so I have had the opportunity to help change their sore bandages and the bandages of a person who had recently lost her legs to diabetes. During this time that I have spent with her, I have also learned that one of their contraceptives is Depo, I recognized it as the medicine given to control moody horses aka Dori.
As I mentioned earlier I have also helped one of the Sisters. She is not at nun as I had originally thought but is one of two nurse practitioners that work at the clinic. Our clinic does not have a doctor that works at the clinic so they are the ones who regularly see the patients and if need be recommended a person to see the doctor when he comes once a week for like 3 hours. With her I was able to see a child who had a chronic nose bleeding problem, help on the baby day when she gave the injections and see a child who was negative for TB.
During the time that I am not in the exam rooms with either the sisters or the nurse I spend my time in the receptionist desk/ area. While working in this area I have learned how to check people in and assign different appointments and figure the ins and the outs of their health care system. Also my latest project has been refilling all of their files. Since my clinic does not have a computer we have completely paper files that are organized by surnames. Also no one has a file number it is done my birthdays, but that’s not really important. So I have spent the past two days re-alphabetize their files, and I have only gotten through the Cs. Apparently this project is going to take me a while.
The two receptionist and have been amazing people to work with. They are very informative and understanding that I don’t understand Afrikaans and so need extra help when talking to patients. One funny incident occurred when a man walked into the clinic with his head bleeding really bad and a piece of newspaper stuck to the back of his head. He kept talking to me in Afrikaans and I and the rest of the waiting room kept telling him I could not understand him. Well then when I went with Mollie to help her patch up his head. He had his new head patch on and was pacing around the room. I told him to sit down and just wait and he kept looking at me like I was stupid. After we gave him a tetanus shot and he got up to leave he looked at me and said “God Bless you I speak English”. I was like, really you just made me look like a fool in front of everyone and you understood me!!!
The time that I spent at the clinic has been so rewarding and I don’t have enough space to tell you all about the different experiences that I have had! Luckily I have three more weeks at this clinic to finish my filing system and then to help out in the HIV and TB clinic. Ill update you more about my experiences at the clinic and our potential educational project at a later time.
Love,
Mary Emily
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