NursingLink

Has anyone worked with a nonprofit or foundation abroad in an underprivelaged community as a nurse before? Perhaps somewhere in Africa or South East Asia? 

If you are american you can try the peace corp or like organizations. i work abroad for a foreign government and do recieve pay . The pay however is about the equivalentm of 6-7 dollars an hour US. Most third world nations will licence and credential you and they love to have the nurses from advanced countries as they can teach the staff newest techniques. It also is a great learning experience for you as you will learn to make do and reuse equipment we would throw out. We make our own bandages and cotton balls from rolls of guaze material as it is less expensive and then strilize and package them on our shift. We clean our o2 tubing and disinfect it etc. It is amazing how adaptive you can be but you have to be able to change hats and accept ideas that we find out dated and old. In many hospitals your patients don't have any monitering equipment, they may be cardiac pts but have no moniters, some drugs are not available do to inaccessability and costs etc. It is very rewarding though your patients are grateful for everything you do and what you lack in equipment the patient gets back in patient care as you are not ties up with technology. Its back to basics and basics only

Sorry it took so long to get back to you. It is one of the problems here, access to technology. I do my communicating through an internet cafe as the on line access is so expensive. Right now I am completing a 6 month stint in Grenada West Indies. It is a country of about 100,000 people with only one full service hospital. We do all the ambulance runs as there are no paramedics and are able to do some advanced practise things like suturing, pre-natal exams etc. It is a learning experience . The hard part is seeing people die that you know would most likely be OK if they had the right equipment or medications. For example..CHF pt's or elderly pts with pneumonia. If they come in with an acute exacerbation it is almost always a poor outcome. You have to accept the reality that a child born early is not likely to survive as there is no neonatal icu's. We can transfer to the bigger islands like Jamaica or Trinidad but there is always the expense and the time factor. Families cannot always afford it and the government has limited funds. The cost of drugs often decides what is the most prevalent medication that is prescibed as incomes average about 300-500 US. It's tough and I do it in short stints as I need to take a break and get my dose of technology and modern medicine to stay on top of things. The best thing is you learn alot of folk medicine and "old treatments"  that really do work in some ways tech is good but in others we can learn from those who have gone before. Talk to you later gggirl