This week the nurses spent most of the time our time on our hand and knees, scrubbing and scrubbing some more.. Yes.. we learned how to stip and rewax floors. The whole hospital area had to be redone. Every surface from top to bottom had to be bleached, cleaned and organized. We have large three wards and one ICU.
The U.S. Ambassador and Minister of Health came about 5 mintues after we were done. Our achy backs and bruised knees were all worth it when we got great feedback of the officals "petting" the beautiful beds and commenting on our beautiful clean floors :)
To celebrate the reopening of the Hospital we held an "Open House" for all the ship's non-medical staff to come down and see what its all about. Each room and medical department had their own games and activities. The OR had a cataract removal simulations and suturing lessons from Dr. Gary Parker staff could try out, as well as rooms to "scrub in" and put on the whole costume.
The Ward made enough sweets to send send everyone into a diabetic coma! I helped create a "Digestion System Maze" that had lots of funny surprises to simulate the digestion process starting from the mouth, down the tongue (slide), through the esophagus (climing through a tube), churning in the stomach (hula hooping- with water squirt guns shooting "acid" into the stomach lining, small to large intestines(winding through bed sheets), finally into the rectum( through a tube, pressing a whoopie cushion) and out the anal sphincter (where you had to squeeze between 2 chairs alarming a toilet flush sound from i-tunes and handed a "tootsie roll" after displaying your best constipation face!
We had lots of laughs as we had everyone from 2 years old to 92 maneuver through it! Quirky fun?? maybe... ha. but thats what ya do when your stuck a ship with limited supplies and nurses active imaginations. Other rooms included lots of crafts & activities set up on the patients beds for people to see the activities they could do with the "Adopt a Patient Program." We also had a station where shipmates could learn how to take vital signs (BP, pulse, etc) and where they had to fully take care of nurses "acting" as patients. Yes, we pulled out all our favorite annoying tricks patients like to try to pull on you and made it as difficult and humorous as possible! These were just some of our many activities. I could time was had by all and got all non-medical staff more comfortable with visiting us downstairs when the patients come! soon!!!
