Work
I see it's been a while since I have written anything! This past week was unusually busy, because Kim, my partner at work, has been in Congo for the week. She went there to help a hospital develop a vesico-vaginal fistula repair program, similar to what we have here. So, I worked a lot of extra hours to help cover what she usually does. The week before that, we had many outages of both our phone and internet service, which made it difficult to even get online.
I have been asked to describe my typical day at work here, but since each day of the week is somewhat different, I'll describe a typical week. Every Monday afternoon, we have an ob/gyn teaching lecture for the interns and residents, so I rotate giving that with my other two ob/gyn colleagues here. Otherwise, I'm usually at home with the kids on Mondays.
Our ob/gyn service has scheduled surgeries all day on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Tuesday is my day to cover the operating room (they call it the "theatre" here), so I typically spend all day in the operating room doing elective surgeries, plus any emergencies that show up as well. Our surgery schedule is usually fully booked several weeks in advance, and it is typically a very full day. Typical types of surgery that I do are hysterectomy, myomectomy (removing fibroids), tuboplasty (for infertility), and laparoscopy. Of course, there are lot of c-sections as well. I did our first ectopic pregnancy by laparoscopy here this past week, which was a milestone for us. As far as I know, it's the first one that's been done at our hospital. Unfortunately, most ectopic pregnancies show up after the tube has ruptured and bled extensively into the abdomen, and the patient is not stable enough to undergo a laparoscopic surgery.
Wednesday is the day off for Alfred, our Kenyan ob/gyn, so Kim and I take turns covering the service for the day, so he can be away. We have a private ob/gyn clinic Wednesday mornings, where we see missionaries and other patients. We schedule elective c-sections on Wednesday mornings, so that a resident can be doing those, while one of us is in the clinic. I typically then do more surgery in the afternoon.
Thursdays, I am usually off and at home with the kids, as that is Kim's day to cover the theatre. On Fridays we have our very busy gynecology clinic, where we usually see 60-70 patients a day. Kim and I also alternate covering this clinic every other week.
One of the things I do every day I'm working is teaching the interns and residents on our service. While they do much the routine work of rounds, prenatal clinic consults, and managing the labor and delivery ward, they frequently come to me with their questions to get advice on managing patients. All of the interns here learn to do c-sections on their own as well, so a lot of time is spent teaching the new interns to do c-sections.
I also rotate taking night call. So, I definitely stay very busy with all that is going on. However, I really enjoy the work here, especially the teaching part. It's good to know that even after I leave, the doctors that I have trained here, will still be using the skills I have taught them.
Alfred and I doing a hysterectomy
I have been asked to describe my typical day at work here, but since each day of the week is somewhat different, I'll describe a typical week. Every Monday afternoon, we have an ob/gyn teaching lecture for the interns and residents, so I rotate giving that with my other two ob/gyn colleagues here. Otherwise, I'm usually at home with the kids on Mondays.
Our ob/gyn service has scheduled surgeries all day on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Tuesday is my day to cover the operating room (they call it the "theatre" here), so I typically spend all day in the operating room doing elective surgeries, plus any emergencies that show up as well. Our surgery schedule is usually fully booked several weeks in advance, and it is typically a very full day. Typical types of surgery that I do are hysterectomy, myomectomy (removing fibroids), tuboplasty (for infertility), and laparoscopy. Of course, there are lot of c-sections as well. I did our first ectopic pregnancy by laparoscopy here this past week, which was a milestone for us. As far as I know, it's the first one that's been done at our hospital. Unfortunately, most ectopic pregnancies show up after the tube has ruptured and bled extensively into the abdomen, and the patient is not stable enough to undergo a laparoscopic surgery.
Wednesday is the day off for Alfred, our Kenyan ob/gyn, so Kim and I take turns covering the service for the day, so he can be away. We have a private ob/gyn clinic Wednesday mornings, where we see missionaries and other patients. We schedule elective c-sections on Wednesday mornings, so that a resident can be doing those, while one of us is in the clinic. I typically then do more surgery in the afternoon.
Thursdays, I am usually off and at home with the kids, as that is Kim's day to cover the theatre. On Fridays we have our very busy gynecology clinic, where we usually see 60-70 patients a day. Kim and I also alternate covering this clinic every other week.
One of the things I do every day I'm working is teaching the interns and residents on our service. While they do much the routine work of rounds, prenatal clinic consults, and managing the labor and delivery ward, they frequently come to me with their questions to get advice on managing patients. All of the interns here learn to do c-sections on their own as well, so a lot of time is spent teaching the new interns to do c-sections.
I also rotate taking night call. So, I definitely stay very busy with all that is going on. However, I really enjoy the work here, especially the teaching part. It's good to know that even after I leave, the doctors that I have trained here, will still be using the skills I have taught them.
Alfred and I doing a hysterectomy
posted by Sharon at 11:07 PM
1 Comments:
Hey Sharon!
I tagged you for another meme! Hope you don't mind :-)
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