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The Emergency Room

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 After 3-weeks in the ICU, I entered the Emergency Room for the first time. No more air-conditioning, single-occupancy beds out of the window and one-to-one nursing a dream. It was replaced by multiple people per bed (the most I witnessed was six) and families rushing to buy supplies, IVs, medications, syringes, needles, giving sets and more from the pharmacy. Within the ER there are three zones: green, yellow and red (resus). At triage patients are allocated to one of these dependant on the severity of their illness. Over the next week I got the opportunity to work in all three areas and triage itself. In the green zone there was a range of people, mainly young with acute illness, who have come in and are receiving antibiotics and/or fluids. The process worked that a doctor would attend to the patient, write up a plan including all the medication to be given, and give this to the family to take to the pharmacy so they can collect and pay for the medications required. Once purchase...
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The Intensive Care Unit

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My first week started with a city introduction and my first shift in Tribhuvan International Teaching Hospital's Intensive Care Unit (ICU). After settling into my home for the next month and unpacking, meeting room/housemates and delving into my first Nepalese dish (delicious chicken momos) I explored Thamel, the tourist district. Chaotic traffic, cars overtaking each other left, right and centre and police on every corner introduced me to this country that lacked the infrastructure I am used to back in England.  Tiny streets lined with shops, restaurants, cafes and several very large potholes paved a maze of culture and Nepal's biggest income - tourism. After getting a new SIM card, withdrawing some Nepalese Rupee from a local bank and trying some local tea I went back to the house to prepare for my first day of placement. Before placement I came up with several objectives that I wanted to achieve during my month in Nepal. These included: - Understand...
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Time to Kathman-go!

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Setting Off! ✈️ An early morning wake-up for a 10am flight to Dubai, and then onto Kathmandu. After the drive to Gatwick and a few hours to get breakfast and relax I board Emirate's A380 to Dubai Airport. Unfortunately after 7 hours on the plane, it never actually left! Another three hours and a hotel voucher later, I arrived at the airport for 1pm the next day, checked in (again), boarded (...again) and this time take-off was successful. The next evening I landed at Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu, Nepal. After obtaining my visa, going through immigration and security I was finally greeted with a pleasant, but warm, Kathmandu evening.
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