Loving work!

I love my work! It took a few years of nursing for me to be able to say that, but now I can't imagine not doing it. Coming to the Africa Mercy just confirmed that again.

Below is our admissions tent, where we not only admit patients to the ward pre-operatively but also where outpatients are seen.

Post-op ortho patient. It took alot for him to smile...with effort and many different ways of entertaining him we were fortunate to get a good smile. He's sure cute!

Maaike (RN from Holland)

Physiotherapist Nick (from Austrailia) working with a post-op patient

Ponsetti casting - treatment for babies/children with club feet where the goal is to have weekly cast changes that will set the bone to grow in the proper postition without surgical intervention. Below is a little girl (premature twin - born at ~32 weeks) who, in this picture, was about one week old with club feet. She and her twin sister, both under 4 lbs were admitted under the infant feeding program in combination with the ortho condition. For the last two weeks I've been assigned to work with the little babies on the infant feeding program, so I got to be their nurse and loved it! They were soooo cute and it was great getting to know the Mother of the patient as well. It's funny to think at home they would be in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). They are being breastfed as well as supplemented with formula. We're hoping to fatten them up before sending them home.

These are the smallest casts I've ever seen, the ortho surgeon said the same thing :)

The little premies...cup feed so well it's amazing!

This is another little baby boy who I got to take care of in the infant feeding program. With the bilateral cleft lip and palate it can be difficult to breast feed, so the little guy was taken in to hospital to gain some weight prior to surgery.

And another one of my little patients, cleft lip

Two little boys post op from cleft lip/palate repair.

This boy was also my patient who had an infected graft site from his previous surgery. Poor little guy who was on contact precautions was unable to join in the different ward activities yet never complained. When he was discharged I met up with him in reception as he was leaving, and he ran up to give me a big hug and was thanking me...priceless. These little ones just grab my heart.