Best Wishes From the Desert

Life is progressing comfortably here. The journey here went really well, no problems with the flight transits or anything else for that matter. I was prepared to have to wait at the airport and plough through paperwork etc. but it all went really smoothly.  I just walked through customs and picked up my bags. We were greeted at Riyadh airport by a member of the hospital staff who escorted us to our accommodation. A welcoming coffee event was arranged for our orientation group on the following day, followed by a short tour of the hospital. The next three days comprised of general orientation The next week was then nursing orientation, which involved lectures concerning almost everything. It almost felt like being back at Nursing School. On the other hand this was very understandable considering we had all arrived from totally different parts of the world.

Work itself has started off just fine. The ward is just so huge!! Forty-two beds and what a mix:general medecine, gatstroenterology, urology, radiation,  respiratory and on top of that haematology, lots of palliative and that's not even all of it. I was under supervision for the first 8 shifts and now I work independently. Initially I was a little bit bored at work because I was only dealing with the "simple" patients, but now already everything is in top gear. I seem to always be in a hurry and time does not pass slowly! Due to the many different specialities in the ward there are also a lot of Doctors, which at times can be difficult because it's hard to identify which Doctor's patients to dedicate yourself to. The fact that doctors' texts, prescriptions, etc. are all hand-written came as quite a shock to me! And at times I might get a little frustrated that all medications, infusions, etc. require an electronic consent from a Doctor and sometimes you have to really push hard to get these consents. And the amount of papers!! All investigations required need to have permission from a witness, and although all the data is on the computer already anyway, there still seems to be notes and paperwork to be filled in all the time!

Before coming here I thought patients would speak a little bit more English. The majority speak only Arabic. I have already picked up on some basic phrases, but extensive use of the intepretor is required. But work is work, regardless of where you are. Despite the busy ward it is really pleasant, and my colleagues always help :)

My apartment is nice. I share a 2-floor residence with a Czech girl; she's such a wonderful person! We also keep in touch and socialize with the other girls from the orientation. On my way to the gym today I ran into a Finnish lady who had just arrived from her holiday from Finland so here we are eating rye bread and salmiakki :) The small joys in life!

I didn't quite know what to expect when coming here, but so far, so good!

Best wishes from the desert: Henna K.