Clinicals!

The other day Matt asked me what I'm actually doing here. He said, "you only talk about the fun stuff!" So I thought it was about time to post something about it. It's true--we are doing our fair share of tourism, but three days a week are spent doing nursing things.

I just finished my first two weeks. With 4 weeks total here we spend two doing community nursing and two in the hospital in an oncology unit. Community nursing has been quite interesting. The nurses drive to each patient's home and we take care of whatever the particular patient needs. Most of the time we do things like put in NG tubes or change catheters.

Me putting an NG tube in

The nurses visit most patients about 2 times a month. The doctors visit about once every two months. A couple of times I was able to be there when the doctor did rounds. Afterwards he took us out to lunch.

Taiwan has a universal health care system that covers almost all of its residents. From what I've seen this really simplifies things a lot. The nurses know how much each visit costs the patient and the patients pay right then in cash.

I was really impressed with how strong family ties are here. Rarely are people put in nursing homes. Some people would be in their seventies but still be the primary caregiver for their parent in their nineties. While talking to the son of one of our patients he said that all of his sisters had moved to the U.S., but he felt that it was his duty as the only son to stay here and take care of his mother.

While many family members serve as caregivers, many others hire live-in caregivers. These caregivers are equivalent to a CNA in the US. Most of the caregivers are Indonesian (about 70%) the rest usually are from Vietnam or the Philippines. They usually come for 3 years at a time, leaving their families at home. They can make about 10 times the amount of money here in Taiwan then they can at home. They work and send the money back. Lots of them even have young children at home.

The woman on the left is a Vietnamese caregiver. She was cute. She was really excited to meet us and was thrilled when we agreed to take a picture with her. The man on the right is the patient's son.

I've liked community nursing because I've gotten to see how the people live. Some of our patients live in really nice homes. One patient had a five story home. Others live in very small, crowded homes.

I learned a lot in the community setting, but I'm excited to see what things are like in the hospital tomorrow.