I miss working so much, so I am really blessed to be able to volunteer in the labor and delivery ward here. After a ton of finagling to actually be able to be there and participate in what was going on, I am gaining the trust of the entire labor room staff. The head sister is awesome and she loves me and Felicia (the other volunteer working with me at the women's hospital, she is a midwife student). The sister doesn't speak a ton of English but she tries very hard to learn. She also tries to learn so much from us, asking questions about the labor unit that I worked on and how things were different. The nurses do the same. They love when we ask them questions and inquire about the systems here because they love to hear our side of things too, so the dynamic isn't question --> answer, questions --> answer. It's more of a general discussion that floats around different subjects, both professional and very personal which is so awesome. We are beginning to be able to do more and more which is great because the staff trust us to do a good job and we ask questions when we don't know things.
The health system here is so different from the US. It is very old fashioned and traditional. There is a head Sister on each ward that runs the unit, similar I would think to a nurse manager. She were a certain uniform and a special hat to distinguish her title. Then there are the nurses, all in white dresses with the white hat and they wear their pins. Below them are the midwives. Here, the midwives don't need the education that the nurses need. They attend a government or private training and get more of a certification rather than proper education and a degree. It's definitely very different and has been strange to get used to but has been so interesting to be exposed to such a different way of doing things. I've really appreciated the mutual respect and learning that has been happening so far.
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