The three-floor Faith Alive hospital cares for about 10,000 patients a month and provides ongoing care for HIV/AIDS patients, as well as care for emergencies, opportunistic infections such as TB and Malaria, and surgery and birthing services.
Learning to be a nurse in Nigeria has brought both joys and challenges in these past few months. I never expected to be delivering babies but here I am doing just that! It was some quick learning that I had to do and now it doesn't seem quite so overwhelming anymore.
Joys of being a nurse here:
-I love the joy the mothers and family have for their newborns
-I love the family support that most of the patients have at the hospital
-it gives me joy to see the work of Faith Alive and how much of a family atmosphere it is
-interactions I have daily with patients and staff
-learning about HIV/AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis etc. There are definetly no hip or knee surgeries out here!!
Challenges:
-sometimes knowing my place at the hospital and what is expected of me
-language barriers
But I think the basics of nursing are the same throughout the world. That would be things like sterility, cleanliness, hand hygiene, caring for the patient in a holistic way. I love that Faith Alive doesn't just stop at the hospital. They carry out home visits, have skill acquisition centres, medical outreaches, counselling services, daily devotions for staff and patients etc. You can check out more at
www.faithalivenigeria.org
The nurses desk.
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| The ward has five beds. There is a separate ICU room and one private room. |
This is the labour and delivery room.
