• Nighttime at the hospital
    Cockroaches are common. This was in the staff bathroom

    A day in my life

    20 novembre 2024, Papouasie Nouvelle Guinée ⋅ ☁️ 64 °F

    I’ve been wanting to share what a typical day here is like. On any given weekday, hospital rounds start at 8 am. Monday mornings start at 7:30 with chapel, Fridays at 7:30 with a doctor’s meeting. After rounds on weekdays, generally I’m in the ER seeing patients. If it’s slow, I got across the “hall” to the clinic and help out there. Every 4 days or so, I’m on call. Usually it’s a 24 hour call, with rounds the next morning before having the rest of the day off. Call varies a lot. Sometimes it’s busy, sometimes not. Patients in the ER or those on the ward with some issue are my responsibility. As I don’t do OB care, someone else is assigned to that ward. I always have a long-term doc as backup for help.

    There’s a more or less protected lunchtime, which has been wonderful. It’s nice to have an hour for lunch and not have to eat here and there between seeing patients. After clinic ends around 4, I often go on a short walk before making (or reheating dinner). Dishes get washed and put away, water filtered, sometimes the floor swept. Some evenings there’s a Bible study or prayer meeting. Sundays the single people get together for a food swap, so they have different dishes to eat throughout the week (I go but eat my own food- the socialization is nice).

    I’ve been sick for about 2 weeks with back-to-back crud, so my time off has been less having fun or working out and more laying in bed. I’m on the upswing from a head cold and pray that it’s gone completely before I leave in a few days!
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