Nurse’s Training Day

Today was the day that Ruth and Bob Sears and Cheri and Kris Howard have been working very hard for the last several months.  All of the nurses from the clinics at all of our orphanages were here today to learn from our American doctors and nurses. 

Our doctors have been developing a curriculum to teach some basics to these nurses, who have a wide background of training.  Some were midwives, some medical techs, and some have had a 1 year nursing course.  Not knowing the exact educational level of all the nurses, they decided to start simple.  Even I could understand most of it.

There were lectures on basic diagnostics, wound care, malaria treatment, and other medical issues.  The dentists also talked about how to evaluate a tooth, make a temporary filling for a cavity and make toothpaste from common local ingredients.  The focus for the day was on prevention and a variety of topics were covered from food safety to hand hygiene, and more.

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All the nurses were very grateful for the training and attention.  They were each given a medical kit, with samples of common medicines and treatments.  Also each got a notebook, with Swahili translations of all the material.  Mauryn communicated with the doctors by email for the last few weeks, doing page after page of translations so the nurses could have good reference material.

In the afternoon, Susie and I went in to Kisumu for water and other supplies.  We arrived back just as the training was ending.  Then came the prep work for the start of clinic the next day.  There were hundreds of items to prepare, medicines to get ready and new dental equipment to test.  After a very long day, everyone was ready for dinner and bed, but we took a few minutes to share a devotional with the training center kids before we turned in.

Tomorrow we start seeing our orphans for medical checkups and dental exams.  We plan to see over 450 kids in the next three days, so we have our work cut out for us!