August 27th, 2017 by jenniferolmstead

Mem and sir left this morning for a conference and won’t be back till Saturday. I heard them this morning but figured I would stay on the room so they didn’t leave late. Breakfast was waiting on the table but I made hot water so we could all have coffee or tea before going to work. I did not have much of an appetite today and had trouble eating. The girls all had toast and cornflakes, and had the noodles with coconut and sugar. Then as I didn’t check in last night since everyone got in so late, I took time to check in before going to the hospital so I was a little late.
I wasn’t sure where to go for the day so I went back to the male ward to see the patient with a new amputation. I had intended to watch the surgery yesterday but that didn’t happen so I figured I would read his chart and see how he was doing today. The nurse working today just kept telling me to sit saying that they do things different here so I should just sit and watch. Not exactly exciting. I spent some time speaking with one of the nurse instructors in the morning. I was able to educate a couple nursing students about inserting IVs and put one in for them. I rounded with a doctor the nurse manager, both I found educational. We had one patient with a TIA and then a new stroke came in. That brought back memories. I asked about doing neuro checks and was told the doctors do on admit and with rounds, otherwise they are not done. I found that interesting. Through translation we did a simple neuro check and identified his weak side so the family could be instructed the best way to help him ambulate by supporting his weak side.
We couldn’t find Helen or Naomi for lunch so we just had three today, me, Judith, and Holly. After lunch, I followed a nurse student doing her medicine pass and stopped and corrected her before she made a couple mistakes. Then I was told to sit again. The student who confided in me yesterday stopped to ask if I had prayed for her. She was very happy when I assured her I had been praying for her.
Then it was off to class. I got there early and waited in the principal’s office. The look on the students face when she came in to get the key was amusing. The students that were there on time got a good laugh from me. As I was walking through the door I saw something out of the corner of my eye at eye level and jumped, it was just a lizard. They all laughed and I laughed with them.

I did something that made then all nervous, which doesn’t take much and then taught them about self-esteem and self-concept and self-acceptance. We did a short quiz in the book to help them understand how little differences can help us to see whether we have a high or low self-esteem. I talked about how what we hear from others can raise or lower our self-esteem if we do not have a high level of self-acceptance to begin with. They were more interactive towards the end and seemed to enjoy the talk quite a bit. I told them I know I make them uncomfortable and that sometimes I push that comfort zone on purpose so they will learn to have enough confidence in themselves to maintain their self-esteem and self-acceptance in the face of people who may try to lower their opinion of themselves. I hope they understood. It’s hard to tell as they all say that they do.