http://www.mercyships.ca/news/single-news/datum/2012/02/29/from-wheatfields-to-waves.html
First day on the ward yesterday. Went in with a bang... as in, I broke a bottle of antibiotics on my first day.... : / Which means I'm somehow gonna have to go out with a bang too... I'll try to make that one somehow a little more appropriate.
Other than that and a few first day nerves, I liked the ward. I'm a Ward B nurse, which I think I'm happy about my placement. Nice variety of patients as in adults and peds, and the cases seem quite interesting. B Ward is the "Plastics" Ward. So I see lots of burn skin grafts. It's pretty amazing really but pretty sad too.
My first patient that I scrubbed and sent to the OR was a lady who had been burnt 4 years ago. Her whole face was disfigured and burnt to her neck; as in she couldn't turn her head etc. I saw her today, but won't know what kind of results she'll get for about 9 days when her bandages can come off.
Day 2 today was my dressings orientation. Next week is going to be tons of dressings so they wanted to give me a day just to observe a bunch. Somehow I love wound care. It's always fascinating. So I think I saw about 5 major wounds today. Each wound is of course accompanied by a graft site. Hard to explain, it's definitely things you would never see at home cause they would have been taken care of at the time of injury.
Ward A, is general surgery (loads of hernias etc), Ward C (is B ward's overflow, which I'll likely work at some point), and Ward D (is Maxo-Facial surgeries, so any cleft palates or facial tumors).
A few social events have helped get acquainted with a few people this week. Canada night was Wednesday out on the deck. Apparently there is 47 of us!! Which is a lot. (I was the minority in my Venezuela group, not so here : ) Thursday night was community night out on the dock. Which meant everyone who lives on the ship plus all the "Day Volunteers" (locals who work on the ward in the day times) all joined for dock BBQ hotdogs and icecream. The music team played and everyone got involved. Was one of my favourite times so far. 
Well, I've been invited to check out some live music this evening,and we're meeting momentarily. Please drop me notes when you have time. They're my favourite things to get : )
Pics to come soon! I promise ; )
Pics are here. These are of the BBQ on the dock! Hope it gives you a bit of a glimpse.
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