Tuesday, February 21, 2017

A Day in the Life: Nursing on the Africa Mercy


Every wonder what it’s like to work on the Maritime Vessel Africa Mercy (AFM)? The following is a description of the typical working day for a ward nurse here. No two days are the same, but this is fairly close to a normal one.

Our tiny sitting area in the back of our cabin
 0620 – I awake to the piercing sound of my alarm. Turning it off quickly, I slip out of the bunk space and into the back of our cabin where I have laid out my scrubs and can turn on a light without waking my three sleeping roommates. Then it’s off to breakfast, a long walk to the opposite side of the ship. Ok, ok its probably a 60 to 90 second walk, but the dining room is at the bow (front) and my room is nearly all the way aft (back). I get to the dining room just after the breakfast line opens at 0630 and take my food to one of the back windows. While I love living in a community, I don’t love the happy group of morning people at the front of the dining room this early. I need my coffee before I can even think about extroverting. I eat as I catch up on Facebook. My family and friends back home on the other side of the world have only just gone to bed a couple hours before.

The Ward on the day it opened. Mikwabo means Welcome all in Fon
0655 – I stop by my room to grab my stethoscope and head down one flight of stairs to A-ward. As I enter I am usually greeted first by our day crew. The day crew on the AFM consist of local people who do not live on the ship, but are hired by Mercy Ships to help in a variety of roles. We could not function without them, they work so hard and with excellence. Many of the work areas in the ship utilize day crew; in the hospital we have two different day crew positions, hospital chaplaincy and ward day crew. The most simple job description I could give for the ward day crew is that they are part translators and part nursing assistants, but that underestimates what they do. I could not do my job without the ward day crew. They are phenomenal! They help us understand our patients, not just by breaking down the language barrier. They are also great resources as cultural translators. We have learned so much from each other. They help with ward tasks ranging from cleaning, meal distribution, patient/visitor escorts, and so on. They keep clean supplies stocked on the ward. To be good stewards, we reuse anything that is washable. We even reuse the little disposable plastic medicine cups. One of the day crew responsibilities is to run the sterilizer to replace all the equipment we go through.

0700 – Night shift and day shift meet for huddle. Night shift briefly discusses any problems the team as a whole needs to know and then we pray for the day. Prayer time on the AFM is unlike any other. With so many people from all over the world we offer up our prayers in whatever language we are most comfortable with (English, Dutch, German, French, Fon, etc.). It’s a powerful testament of the body of Christ. We may be different, but we are one and share the same purpose.

Double checking pediatric doses for meds
Once we finish I get report form the night nurses on my patients. I have five patients today. The first are two women with goiters caused by an over active thyroid. The first is on her first day post op, having had her goiter and most of her thyroid removed the day before. The second is waiting for her surgery today. She is a mixture of excitement and nerves, but she is in good company, surrounded by woman who share a similar story. I also have two plastics patients: Baki, a 14 year old boy who injured three of his extremities due to an electrical burn several years ago. He walks with a limp and is missing his left arm, but Mercy Ships was able to release the burn contracture to his other hand. Jeanne is my other plastics patient. She is only slightly younger than myself, but has been living with a burn injury to her hand since she was five years old. My fifth patient is a little out of the ordinary. He’s one of the day crew who has been sick and needed IV antibiotics.

Administering meds through a feeding tube for a patient
0730 – I see each of my patients. “Bonjour! Ca va?” Or “Me fon gon gia” I say, depending on what language they speak. I check vital signs, have them rate their pain on a picture scale and start passing morning medications, mostly consisting of vitamins, while the day crew hands everyone hand sanitizer and begins passing out breakfast. Last week A-ward had a much larger pediatric population so I spent half of my time kneeling on the floor trying to reach my little patients who preferred to sleep under the beds on the mattress for their parents then they did in their hospital beds.

0800 – One of the hospital physicians comes in to check on my day crew patient. He has been fever free since last night and can get discharged!

0820 – I get my patient’s discharge paperwork completed as general surgery rounding begins which consist of the current surgeon, his resident helper, the A-ward nursing team leader and day crew to translate. They visit each patient at the bedside, evaluate their progress and discuss the plan of care. As they finish the first patient heads off to the OR, a women with probably the largest goiter I have personally seen preoperative.

Doctor Parker (far left) during D-ward daily rounds
0830 – Next is plastics rounding which is much more crowded. So many people are involved in these patients' care. Into the ward we crowd 2 surgeons, 3 physical therapist, the dressing’s team leader, the ward nurse team leader, a hospitalist and of course a day crew to translate.  

Patient getting a dressing change in the in-patient treatment room. 
0900 – One of the dressings nurses comes to take Baki and another patient back to the inpatient treatment room for their dressing changes. They also need one of the day crew to help translate, but this is easier said than done. Both patients speak Bariba, a northern dialect very few of our day crew understand. We do a little rearranging and soon Samuel is off to help translate as I sit down to do discharge teaching. Discharges normally take a long time because every word needs to be translated, but this time my patient spoke English and after ten minutes he was on his way out the door, antibiotics in hand.
Taking a moment to dance to the music

0930 – After discharging my patient, one of the fathers challenged me to play connect four; he had already beaten me three times when the hospital chaplaincy team filed in, saving me from a fourth loss I’m sure. When the chaplains enter all nonessential work stops. I had a difficult time with this the first time it interrupted discharge teaching I was completing. The culture of my task oriented mindset wanted to finish, but I’ve since seen that the relationship oriented culture of my patients creates an atmosphere where pausing a task to join in on what the community is doing is not only accepted, it’s expected. The chaplains lead a time of worship, scripture reading, prayer, song, and dance. Everyone who can is on their feet dancing, those who can’t dance clap to the rhythm and sing along. The mamas sometimes have what I can only describe as a dance off, taking turns praising God with their whole bodies.     
Chaplaincy leading a time of worship through song and dance 

Walking the long corridor
that makes up the hospital 
Eye patient just after surgery, before the patch is removed. 
0940 – I leave A-ward for a short coffee break. I walk through the rest of the hospital. Passing 
Eye patient as she sees for the first time in years. 
B-ward where all the plastics patients start off, then C-ward where our most stable longer stay patients end up when they are getting close to discharging. Next is the eye room full of outpatient cataracts patients who will arrive on the ship blind and leave with their sight restored. As I pass, a day crew comes out carrying a child in her arms. Even with his eyes covered in gauze he knows I’m there. He smiles and reaches out his arm so I shake his little hand. I tear up a little as they continue down the hall and imaging his face when he sees for the first time and the whole world is opened up to him.  

1000 – I’m back on the ward and it’s time to start passing nutritional supplements to our plastics patients who need extra nutrition and calories for their skin grafts to heal. I go in search of Baki who is no longer in the ward and find him down the hall with one of his new friends from B or C ward. Patients and parents come and go from the wards all day. Its like one big and loud family. When I get back to the ward I sit down at a small table with a group of boys to color and joke with each other (boys are the same everywhere when it comes to what they find hysterical) until the OR calls that they will soon arrive to pick up my preoperative patient for surgery.

Some of our goiter patients, mostly woman, but we do see a few on men also.
1145 – I let my patient know that the OR will be here soon and scrub her neck with an antibacterial soap. The OR nurse arrives with a translator and we go through the check list, and she reminds the patient what to expect and answers any questions. The OR nurse then asks the patient if she can pray for her before she goes into surgery. The patient smiles and nods so we lay hands on her shoulders and the OR nurse begins praying in Dutch.
Goiter patient at her out patients appointment



1200ish – I take a lunch break, meeting up with some of my non-work friends. The dining room is packed during lunch between crew and day crew so we take our food to the quieter café area to talk for the next half hour.

1300 – I get vitals on my first day post op patient, reassess her incision and empty her wound drains. She is healing very well and will likely have the drains removed tomorrow morning and then discharge after lunch. She will follow-up a few days later for a wound check with outpatients.

1330 – The first surgery of the day is back from PACU and wow does she look different without the large goiter hiding her neck. Except for a scar across her neck you would have never known it was there.

Goiter patient post surgery, day of discharge. 
 She is smiling ear to ear as we get her into bed and I check her vitals as her nurse gets report from the PACU nurse.

1400 the evening shift arrives. Our team leader Jane leads us in a devotion or plays a worship song before we again pray for our patients and each other. I hand over my patients to the oncoming nurse.

Watching a container ship come into port on deck-7


1430 I join the rest of the day shift in taking any patient who is able up to deck 7 where they can spend some time in the sun while the evening shift stays on the ward with those who can’t go yet. Up on deck 7 the older patients sit in chairs talking, playing games and watching ships come into the harbor as the little ones race around on tricycles.
Giving mom a break on deck-7






1525 – I help to lead the patients back down to the hospital, taking those on crutches down in our tiny elevator. While we were gone three new thyroid patients have arrived to be admitted before their surgeries tomorrow, and the day crew is currently orientating them to the ward. Once everyone is safely back in the ward I head up the stairs to my room. I close the door behind me, but I can still hear the faint sounds of the hospital below.
Deck-7 fun

Playing games in the cafe' 







1535 - Since I am off before most of the ship in the afternoon when I work days, I have a perfect opportunity for quiet time. I’m usually alone in my cabin for the next couple hours. At five I’ll go get dinner and then in the 



evenings I do a variety of things. Sunday Evenings we have Church and Thursday evenings we have a community meeting which ends with ice cream. Other evenings I have off are spent playing games, watching movies in one of my teacher friends’ classrooms, practicing with the acapella group I’m in, going on the occasional outing for pizza, or just hanging out in my cabin with my bunk mate, who is awesome by the way.  





There you have it a typical day on the Africa Mercy. I have good days and bad days. Some days are crazy while others can drag on, but it is a joy to be here. I am so blessed and I wouldn't trade my new job for anything.

More deck-7 fun

The last few plastics patients to discharge after our first stage of
plastics surgery getting a ride out of the port. 

Deck-7 fun with Ricardo and Joseph, nicknamed the twins because they
had the same surgery and were always found playing together.
My awesome bunk mate, Tiffany, trying out the new
backpack style vacuums to clean out our bunk space. 

Not all days are the same!!! on this particular day one of the patients kindly
offered to cut another patients hair which turned into cutting everyone's hair. 

Author's Note: While I am currently serving with Mercy Ships the ideas and opinions expressed here are my own. Mercy Ships has not reviewed nor do they endorse the content written within this blog. A big thank you to the photographers who shared the pictures this post contains.

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