Thursday 12.3.2009

We have been here now almost for two weeks. The weather has been very warm this week. On Monday we had a day off and we went to the Swedish school with Swedes. There was a nice swimming pool and we spent whole day sunbathing there. Suprisely we also got burnt :)

On Tuesday we started practise in male medical ward. It`s almost same than female medical ward. We do lots of same things like dump dusting, bed making and TPR (temperature, pulse and respiration). We have to do everything by ourselves, because there is no other students at the moment.

If patiens` relatives dont have money to buy diapers or other equipment, they dont get them from the hospital. For example a bed-ridden-patient might be swimming in pee if the relatives don`t wash them. Nurses won`t do any basic nursing.

Medical treatment is here very diffrent than in Finland. There isn`t much drugs, and nurses can`t give any medicine like painkillers when it`s needed. For example yesterday one patient was screaming in pain and we asked if we could give him painkillers, but nurse said that they can`t give any extra painkillers (not even paracetamol) without doctors permission. Sometimes it feels fustrating that we can`t do anything for patients.

Patients are very ill here, and every day somebody dies, some days even a few. In Wednesday morning when we went to the ward there was still a body of the man who died day after in treatment room. Nobody picked the body untill midday. Here the dead bodies will be tied up and wrabbed in the sheets and treating the body is not as respectfull as it is in Finland.

Last weekend we went out with one local girl in the club nearby the hostel. The club is in medical campus and there were lot of local medical students. People there were very nice and they came to talk to us a lot. It was just nice to have a couple of beers and relax. Music was very loud and people were dancing like mad. People here drink a lot unlike we thought that they would just have few drinks and still dance a lot. It's quite funny actually because everyone is always asking whether we drink beer and have tasted the local beers Mosa and Castle yet, even a sister-in-charge in female medical ward asked if we drink beer. One beer in the bar cost about 1€, so it's much cheaper than in Finland and we like it here!:)

Here at the hostel has been lot of water breaks during this week. We don't know why, but it's bit annoying sometimes if you can't have shower or cook when you want to.

Next week we`ll go to casualty and next time we will tell about the week there!