Clinicals at Chi Mei Hospital

Tuesday, May 3rd, 2011

Today was our first day of clinical in Taiwan. We started out by going to orientation up at Chi Mei (Chee May) Hospital where we met with Hui Ting (Kris and Dean Cole’s friend and our clinical coordinator) and all the other nurses that we will be working with. We had a brief introduction and then we watched a video about Chi Mei Medical Center. I was amazed at how similar their system is to ours. They, too, have staff nurses that work with assistance nurses who have nurse leaders and nurse specialists, etc. After orientation, we were sent off to our different units. Half of us are starting with the community home health nurses while the other half are working in the oncology/hospice unit. The nurses in community home health are so funny and so so nice! Here’s a few pictures of them:

From top left across: Alyssa, Ginger, Me; Middle row: The head nurse (I can't remember her name), Ray Jing, Jeni, Kelsey;  Bottom: Judy

The nurses speak very broken English but they do well enough to teach us what they know. We have a fun time teaching them English words also. Sometimes they have trouble saying a word and we hear it differently that they say it. We all get a good laugh when we final figure out what they are saying. For example, today the nurses told us they wanted to take us to the night market on Thursday. They told us we’d eat some “snakes” there. We were all a little skeptical at first (being our first day and we were still having a little trouble with the food). So we asked again, “We will eat snakes?” and I did a hand motion to show a snake (they understand hand motions pretty well). They all started laughing and said no no no a “SNAKE!” We finally realized they were trying to say “snack”. We tried to teach them “snack” but it’s hard for them to say the “a” sound like “apple” so they ended up saying snaaaaack. It was absolutely hilarious! Before we left the unit, they gave us really cute bracelets and told us a “grandmother” made them and that there is a story that goes with them but they can’t tell us yet. Haha

After meeting the nurses, we went to the Traditional Chinese Medicine Unit where they did a presentation for us about different theories in Chinese medicine and then they did acupuncture and cupping on some of us!

 Amber gets pain in the back of her knees so she got acupuncture on the back and the front of her knee.

 See the two needles? One behind...one on the front

 This is cupping. The doctor put it on Kelsey's back to help with shoulder pain

 I received a cupping treatment for a headache!

 The doctor also gave me acupuncture for my headache...but he put the needle on my hand...weird! Apparently he put it there because the "meridian" for my head goes all the way down to my hand. I was scared acupuncture would hurt but it actually didn't hurt at all! The needle is within a little tube that the doctor puts up to your skin then carefully (but quickly) hits the needle into your skin. Once its in, he pushes it in further and further until is in able .5-1.5 inches!! Its crazy! After a few minutes, you can feel that the needle is in you but it still doesn't hurt. Very weird! My headache did get better!

 The after effect on Kelsey.

 Jocelyn tore her ACL right before we left for Taiwan so she got acupuncture on her knee then the doctor gave her a good rub down to loosen all the muscles in her leg :)

We spent a couple hours in the Traditional Chinese Medicine unit then went with our nurses to eat lunch. They ordered lunch for us so we had no idea what to expect.

In the top left corner are curry vegetables (potato, soy beans, and a few other things), the middle top is a hard-boiled egg cooked in soy sauce, the top right is some type of greens with shrimp, the bottom left has rice with chicken cooked in a sweet sauce, and the bottom left is cabbage in a sweet vinegar. The lunch was all around pretty good but it was definitely interesting and very different from home.

A soup came with the lunch box we had. That noodle looking thing in there is pig intestine. Bleh!!

We also eat “premature mango” which is basically unripe mango in sugar water. VERY GOOD!

After lunch, I went on home visits with my nurse Ginger. Ginger is her American name. Her Chinese name is too hard for me J I think it’s something like Hui Ling….Not sure. All the names are really hard to say for us American.

We drove to the patient’s homes to do the visits. The streets here remind me of Time Square because there is color and flashing lights everywhere!! I can’t tell one street from another! They all look the same to me, especially since all the signs are in Chinese and I can’t tell the difference anyway.

Ginger took me to the first Chinese Temple in Taiwan between home visits today. It was really interesting to see the different things the people do at their temples.

People come to the temple to pray to the Gods. They usually grab a handful of incense, light it, and walk up to all the displays, kneel and bow to the Gods. Ginger told me that most people come to the temples when they are looking for luck, for a spouse, for money, etc.

 On this wall are papers that people can mark off the numbers when they have a question for the Gods. Ginger said they are supposed to mark one number in each column, take the paper to the alter and pray, they go to a barrel of sticks and pull out one of the sticks. If the stick has the number they marked off on it, then they Gods will grant them they're desire. If not, then it is not their time for their desire.

 This is the biggest, most ornate alter in the temple.

 People put their incest sticks into this once they are done praying with them.

 Ginger said this wall is for people looking for a spouse. They come to the temple, fill out their prayer and put it on this wall for the Gods to consider.

 The Taiwanese (and Chinese, I guess) believe that they need to send money to their ancestors and to the Gods to get what they need in life so people purchase bundles of "money" from street vendors outside the temple then bring it into the temple, pray with it then throw it into the fire so the smoke can take the money up to Heaven for their ancestors and Gods.

 Another area of the temple gives little plastic yellow and red pouches that are for luck for the person. You put the pouches on a string then go over to the incense cauldron and twirl your pouches over them three times to make them lucky and provide you with safety. You are supposed to keep them in your car or moped or motorcycle to keep you safe.

 These are the street vendors selling "money" to give to the Gods and ancestors.

Ginger also took me to get a really yummy dessert! I don’t know what its called but it’s basically mochi with fresh mango and cream inside. So yummy!!

The next visit we went on was to an elderly woman that had a spinal injury and was bed-ridden. In Taiwan, everyone calls the elderly “Amah” meaning grandmother or “A-Kong” meaning grandfather. My nurse taught me to say “Hello Grandmother” (Amah, Nee How) when I walked in so I said it to her and she gave me a dirty look and said, “Who is this?” to my nurse in Chinese. Haha!! Everyone started laughing. She was very funny. Most of the people we visit have nasogastric tubes or catheters or trach tubes. The home health nurses go in to change any of the tubes and check the general health of the patients. Sometimes they draw blood or take other samples back to the hospital to make sure everything is going well for the patient at home. The technical work is not very hard but the relationships the nurses have with the patients are wonderful to see! The nurses in Taiwan are so loving and compassionate towards the patients they serve. 

Once we got back to our dorm after clinical, we decided we wanted to get massages that night. Alyssa and I went across the street to try to figure out how much is cost and how late they stayed open. We had a terrible time trying to figure things out with absolutely NO Chinese to help us. After several minutes and TONS of hand motions, we were able to get an appointment for all of us that night. When we made it over at 7, we still didn’t know what we were getting or how much it would cost but we all wanted a massage so we sat down and let them go! We ended up getting a FABULOUS neck massage while our feet soaked in water, then we got a 30-minute foot massage after! It was so good but sometimes hurt! Those Taiwanese people can be rough!

After massages we just walked around the city a little bit near our dorm to see what we could find. We made plans to eat at a Japanese grill across the street and stopped by the bakery. There is SO MUCH FOOD in this city! I get so full during lunch time though that I can’t even handle much dinner when it comes around! We are hoping to make some room for all of the little restaurants around our dorm though J

I feel like we’ve been in Taiwan FOREVER already. We are becoming accustomed to the people and how to interact with them. We are excited to get out and see the rest of the country on our weekends off J