HIPPA? What’s that?

Today was my first day at LCH, the hospital here in Mussoori. I have no idea what the initials stand for but I found out a few other things. It is a Christian hospital that is a part of a chain of hospitals kind of like Good Sam . So the hospital is pretty small and sends all the "hard" cases to Derha Duhn. They have 4 bed male surgical ward, 5 bed male general ward, same goes for the female wards, a nursery room (with one bed), a labor and delivery bed, a 3 bed ICU/post-ops, and then a 3 bed pediatric ward. There are rooms on the 3rd floor called semi-private and premium rooms. The semi-private have two beds and cost about 1,000 INR and the premium room is private and has a TV. That room costs 1,500 INR. As far as I can figure there are 4 doctors. One is a pediatrician, OB/GYN, surgeon, and an gen. med. doctor. They see patients in the morning at their offices in the hospital. People line the halls for hours to see a doctor. There is also an OT. The hospital has one ventilator and none of the nurses know how to use it. Oxygen is really only used in the ICU. The craziest thing is that they have no gloves except for use in sterile procedures done by the doctors. When I helped a nurse get an IV in I put gloves on that I had brought and she laughed at me! Needless to say I said many prayers for my personal health and safety today.

The day starts out with a chapel service that everyone attends in the lobby where I made new friends for the week! There are a group of 3rd year nursing students and some medical students from Christian Medical College in Bangalor, India (southern India) that are doing clinical at the hospital this week. This is nice for me because in southern India English is their first language and Hindi is their second so I learned a lot about Indian nursing school from them! After the orientation of the hospital I was sent by myself to spend the day in the Emergency Department. Here they call it the casualty department. That sounds really morbid to me! The nurses, one in particular, spoke very good English and was very good at explaining things to me. We had four patients that all were admitted to the hospital. So it was kind of a slow day, but it was nice to talk to the nurses. Trying explain things about the States is kind of hard especially explaining nursing school because it is fairly different.

I am feeling so much more comfortable here even though my Hindi is very limited. I am learning a few words and phrases but most things (especially at the hospital) I cannot understand. So I just smile and nod! Hahaha Thank goodness for Jana and Joni who graciously translate whole conversations for me!

I am having a lot of trouble with the internet here, especially when checking my e-mail. I am sorry! I will check it as soon as possible. I am not ignoring you. Thanks for the prayers. The weather is much cooler, in the 70s but people are still fairly sick with a viral fever. So please continue to pray. Hope all is well. Much love to you all.