Different Things

Things I have noticed to be  bit different:

• Doctors and nurses are not taught about ethics of their work with patients
• In the country of Nica, there are 3.6 nurses to every 10,000 people
• No toilet paper in public hospital bathrooms
• Patients cannot look at their own medical chart
• Children and adults juggle fire in the intersections of major streets for money
• Beggers touch, knock your car at intersections
• Once it starts raining, there isn’t a day without rain for nearly 6 months
• Stop lights can go from Red to Yellow to Green too
• Futbol/soccer is a big deal…everybody has their team. Madrid/Barcelona/Manchester…
• No one knows their birthday
• There is no right way to spell your name…Jason, Geison, Yeson may all be the same person
• A  water bottle costs 50 cents
• Medications are not locked in hospital…not even the morphine, epinephrine, atropine
• A glove=a tourniquet
• If there are air bubbles in the IV line….no problem
• IV sites are covered with opaque tape so you cannot see the IV site
• Intramuscular injections may bubble for 3 minutes, change 2 different colors when you mix the dilute and crystallized if you do not give it within 30 seconds
• Sterile materials are wrapped in newspaper
• Nurses work 24 hour shifts with only 1 day off before they work again
• There is no call light in the hospitals except for executive rooms at private hospital
• A nurse makes $4,200 a year
• There is no “hi, my name is _____ and I am going to be your doctor/nurse.”
• It’s okay if goat wanders into your house
• Chickens/roosters are often on the roof of your house
• Ants, cockroaches, lil spiders, the occasional bird, and neighbors dog are just another part of your house…especially if it’s raining
• Coffee and coca-cola are like water
• Nobody at the schools check to see if the students have had all their vaccinations
• A sharps container for needles in the hospital is a milk container that has a big hole in it and sits on the floor or on the counter labeled with a marker
• Prayer is often a simultaneous event with everyone who is around the table/in the circle/in the church praying at the same time
• Labor Day is May 1^st
 Love,

Ayla Landry

"Differences challenge assumptions." Anne Wilson Schaef