The students came back Saturday afternoon for lunch and then donned their salwar suits for the first time to walk over to the hospital compound for an orientation with Dr. Philip (the Medical Superintendent of the Lady Willingdon Hospital whom we have been planning everything with).
We walked over to the compound which is conveniently located within a 2-minute walk of the hotel. Dr. Philip met us and welcomed the students and staff to the hospital. He then gave us a tour of the hospital buildings and discussed how the hospital runs and how the student's rotations would fit in.
We saw the maternal and child health ward including the delivery room and antenatal clinic, the laboratory, the emergency room, the ICU, and the outpatient department (or OPD). The student's eyes progressively widened further and further as they learned not only the extent of the hospital's services (which was significantly larger than many had realized), but also just how much they would be allowed to observe. Dr. Philip explained that if they left their cell phone numbers with the nurses in the maternity ward and emergency room, they could be called to come observe whenever an accident or delivery came in. He told them they could observe in the operating room as he performed both major and minor surgeries, in the clinic for pregnant women and immunizations for children, and to attach themselves to a doctor in the outpatient clinic and follow them throughout the course of their day. If they were really feeling adventurous, they could even be "on call" in the evenings/overnight in the emergency room to be there as the cases came in.
We also talked about how the groups would go out into the community with the village health workers and would each live for a week in the hospital's peripheral community health clinic in the small village of Jibhi - about a three-hr drive from Manali.
The students and faculty were bowled over by how open the hospital was to having them observe and integrate into the daily life of the hospital and all of our excitement could hardly be contained.
After a bit of talk on the TB research and a nice cup of chai in the OPD, we made our way back over to the hotel.
Nathan and Jacob told me how impressed they were with Dr. Philip - how intelligent and collected he seemed, as well as how thrilled they were to get to be so hands-on and to see such a wide-variety of health issues in varying contexts. I pulled out a chair for a rest in the courtyard and slowly almost all of the students trickled in, joining me under the table's umbrella. We had a wonderful, spontaneous conversation about their reactions to the hospital orientation, and I was filled with happiness when they universally echoed their excitement and highly positive impressions of the hospital.
While many questions remain unanswered, after so much fretting as to just how this whole thing was going to work (and would it even really!), I felt a huge sense of relief and happiness wash over me, coupled with enormous excitement about the adventure that is surely in store for all of us over the coming month!
We walked over to the compound which is conveniently located within a 2-minute walk of the hotel. Dr. Philip met us and welcomed the students and staff to the hospital. He then gave us a tour of the hospital buildings and discussed how the hospital runs and how the student's rotations would fit in.
We saw the maternal and child health ward including the delivery room and antenatal clinic, the laboratory, the emergency room, the ICU, and the outpatient department (or OPD). The student's eyes progressively widened further and further as they learned not only the extent of the hospital's services (which was significantly larger than many had realized), but also just how much they would be allowed to observe. Dr. Philip explained that if they left their cell phone numbers with the nurses in the maternity ward and emergency room, they could be called to come observe whenever an accident or delivery came in. He told them they could observe in the operating room as he performed both major and minor surgeries, in the clinic for pregnant women and immunizations for children, and to attach themselves to a doctor in the outpatient clinic and follow them throughout the course of their day. If they were really feeling adventurous, they could even be "on call" in the evenings/overnight in the emergency room to be there as the cases came in.
We also talked about how the groups would go out into the community with the village health workers and would each live for a week in the hospital's peripheral community health clinic in the small village of Jibhi - about a three-hr drive from Manali.
The students and faculty were bowled over by how open the hospital was to having them observe and integrate into the daily life of the hospital and all of our excitement could hardly be contained.
After a bit of talk on the TB research and a nice cup of chai in the OPD, we made our way back over to the hotel.
Nathan and Jacob told me how impressed they were with Dr. Philip - how intelligent and collected he seemed, as well as how thrilled they were to get to be so hands-on and to see such a wide-variety of health issues in varying contexts. I pulled out a chair for a rest in the courtyard and slowly almost all of the students trickled in, joining me under the table's umbrella. We had a wonderful, spontaneous conversation about their reactions to the hospital orientation, and I was filled with happiness when they universally echoed their excitement and highly positive impressions of the hospital.
While many questions remain unanswered, after so much fretting as to just how this whole thing was going to work (and would it even really!), I felt a huge sense of relief and happiness wash over me, coupled with enormous excitement about the adventure that is surely in store for all of us over the coming month!
:) I am so happy to hear this! Good job, Heather! I hope you have something in store for me when I come. :) Looking forward to everything, and more.
ReplyDeleteHimani