nursing on the AFM

Before I leave, I thought I'd finally write down (0r rather list) some of the quirky things that make nursing on the Africa Mercy unique, interesting, challenging, and incredibly rewarding. I came up with thirty, but I'm sure there are more. :)

You know you're a nurse on the AFM when...

1. Your coworkers are also your roommates.

2. You can roll out of bed 20 minutes before your shift starts, walk up to breakfast, eat, and still make it on time.

3. The commute to work is a less than five minute walk down the hall or down a flight of stairs.

4. It doesn't phase you that men, women, and children all share one big hospital room.

5. You ask your patient a question and the patient in the next bed answers it.

6. You find yourself using the strangest gestures to communicate with your patient.

7. Your patient's mother sleeps under the bed and it's perfectly normal.

8. You give ensure for the NG feed. And if it the tube is obstructed, you just pour down some coca-cola to remove the obstruction.

9. You give Lactulose like there's no tomorrow to keep "the bowels open."

10. Your coworker tells you she's "going for tea" (her lunch break, of course).

11. You have to share two to three vital sign machines between 20 patients cuz there just aren't enough to go around.

12. You work with nurses from all over the world.

13. The stethoscope feels heavy around the neck because you haven't used it in ages.

14. You check your patient's bags before discharge and they don't think anything of it.

15. Sometimes you use three-way translation to communicate with your patient. Like the patient two wards down who can speak to the patient's mother in the next bed who then can speak to the translator who speaks to the patient. Still following? :)

16. You instruct your patient how to make clean water for their wound care at home.

17. You give injectable Fentanyl by mouth as a premed. And Tylenol sounds funny because you've been calling it "Paracetamol" for so long.

18. You have to remind your patients multiple times not to sit on each other's bed.

19. You have to show your patient how to use the toilet and shower.

20. Singing and dancing are a daily occurrence.

21. You muster your patients every week for a fire drill.

22. You work days, evenings, and nights. And sometimes all three in the same week.

23. Sometimes you eat the patient food if there is leftovers because you like the African food.

24. Supplies change depending on what's donated.

25. You hand write everything because there is no such thing as computer-charting.

26. What's a pyxis?

27. Your patient has never been on a ship before, let alone seen the ocean.

28. Your oriented patient sleeps through the night.

30. You use betadine for everything, and a curtain with magnets for privacy.

Most importantly, Jesus is the center. He is the focus of what we do and why we are here. We share a common thread and we are here because we WANT to be. And prayer is ESSENTIAL. We begin and end each shift in prayer together. We pray with our patients and for each other. Because that's just what we do. And because we are wise enough to know we can't do what we do on our own strength.

Some of us nurses at my goodbye party