ortho

as the purpose of our trip was to become familiar with the healthcare in taiwan, what better way to understand the healthcare then to be a part of it? our group was given the wonderful opportunity to be interns at the 2nd largest hospital in the country and observe many different wards and floors they offered. we were paired in groups of two and assigned to certain floors in the hospital. for my rotations i was assigned to the ortho floor as well as the surgical intensive care unit. 

first up was ortho. at first we were miserable! although they were so sweet when we arrived, even taking the time to label our own "locker", it was a basic medical surgical floor with little going on. after the second day we realized how lucky we were to have such a wonderful preceptor as well as conscious patients we could communicate with and create a rapport with. our best patient was a woman [name removed for patient privacy] who was recovering from a total knee replacement surgery. aubrey and i only learned two words the entire trip, ni hao in chinese and jia bah bo in taiwanese.  although one cannot get anywhere with these words, somehow our smiles and pathetic attempt at hand signs sparked a friendship and before we knew it, our patient and her mother were buying us different foods every day. from green tea, to boba, to shrimp chips, ending with corn on the cob! it was such a wonderful experience to see how just a simple smile or a loving hand can speak to someone and know that you care. 

we became friends with the fellow nursing students and although they barely understood english, there was a sense of comradery. such a comradery in fact, we became facebook friends within 5 minutes of meeting them!

we were so touched by their love for us after only a day of meeting us. they showed genuine care towards us and treated us as if we were royalty. here we are, lowly nursing students with still another year to go and yet were treated almost better than some of the doctors. one example that still baffles me involves our fascination with the stamps the nurses use to sign documents and charts as opposed to signing with a pen. each nurse is given an individualized stamp with a "rn[insert name]" engraving. we thought this was such a great idea! we told them that america should do the same thing. they laughed that out of all the things at the hospital, we were stuck on the stamps. little did we know that they would remember that small tidbit. on our last day on the floor, our preceptor, jenny, made a personal trip to the hospital on her day off to hand deliver a gift for us. aubrey and i both opened them, only to find they had made each of us an individualized stamp with each of our names (both in english and chinese) inscripted on them and the floor (5a) that we worked on. the floor had gotten together and ordered us the stamps! it was such a small act of kindness but we were both so touched by the loving gesture. the nurses and all the healthcare workers at chi mei hospital have been such great examples to me of service and charity. they expect nothing in return and only wish for your happiness. that trait is something i almost hope to possess and share with others.