Morning report with lots of new admissions. Dr. Kung and I spent an hour afterwards putting together a folder with all the order forms, etc. that we need when we do rounds, while the interns and residents prepped the patients for Dr. Kung to see them. She’s super organized, and she wanted to have all the paperwork with us while we rounded so that she could write the orders on the spot, instead of having to search for the right form. As I’ve mentioned before, nothing here is computerized, and there are very few (if any) copy machines. Orders are all handwritten, the “filing system” consists of a huge three drawer cabinet with poorly labeled cubbies for the different forms (usually filed in the wrong place or mixed together), and forms that have to be filled out in triplicate are done the old fashioned way – get a piece of carbon paper (if you can find one) and stick it in between the sheets before you start writing. Having the forms collected in advance saves us SO much time. Yet Dr. Kung complimented me on my organizational skills, which made me feel pretty warm and fuzzy ☺
Rounded on the patients – amazingly, everyone except one patient was doing much better. I had been more or less certain that at least one of the babies was going to die. Needless to say, it was a pleasant surprise.
Finished rounds around 1, then Dr. Kung talked me through how to do the TB skin test and got one of the nurses to show me how to place it. She told me that I could do the next one, if I feel comfortable. YAY!
Started working on charts while I waited for Dr. Kung to come back. I was done with most of the data entry for June, and I had physically looked at every single one of the 2,233 charts, but as I had been going through I had had to mark the ones that I absolutely could not read to go over with Dr. Kung. We tried to start on my questions in the morning, but then we had to do rounds. I also had not included in my original data entry the charts for dead/aborted fetuses found in dumpsters and brought in by the police to certify death – there were 5 for June ☹ I still had to double-check the dates on all the charts I had reviewed before I noticed the mixed up charts, plus add in those few entries, so I was fine with Dr. Kung taking a little while. It got past 1, so when she reappeared she suggested we each take 30 minutes for lunch, and reconvene at 2. I worked through lunch to finish up the last bit of charting, and had just finished when she came in at 2:45 to say that there were a bunch of critically ill new admissions. So I ended up going to the storage room in the A&E to pick up the next month’s charts (May 2009), while she did what she needed to do (stopping for a 15-minute coffee break on the way, because I had basically scarfed down my peanut butter sandwich in between organizing charts).
Once I walked into the storage room, though, I almost became the next new admission – Dr. Kung had showed me the files before, but I hadn’t realized the true extent of the barely contained chaos that lay within the seemingly innocuous cardboard boxes filled with files. Dr. Kung had said that the records for May 2009 were in boxes in two different rooms. I quickly located one of the ones she had mentioned, but luckily decided to dig through and make sure that ALL of the papers were actually May 2009 before I lugged it back to the paeds medical ward on the other side of the hospital. They weren’t. In fact, only the first stack was from May – the rest were a mix of January and February 2009, with April 2008 thrown in as a bonus. Awesome. I then found the second box Dr. Kung had found, which was not only overflowing, but also completely ripped open on one corner. The people in (what I presumed was) the A&E waiting room next to the two records rooms seemed to get a kick out of watching me flit back and forth with what I’m sure was a comical expression of confusion, horror and borderline hysteria. I escaped after about 20 minutes with a half-filled box of May charts that I managed to cull from four different boxes. I’m still shuddering at the thought of having to go back in that room.
I worked on the new charts until almost 5, when Dr. Kung finally managed to get away from the ward. We were both pretty worn out, but she wanted to get the June charts done once and for all before the weekend, so we plowed through them, and didn’t end up leaving till 6:30. At that point it was after dark, so she gave me a ride back to UB. I hadn’t ever been at the hospital after dark before, and it was PITCH BLACK once we left the building. There aren’t a lot of lights between the buildings, so I literally couldn’t even see my feet as I was walking. Somehow I managed not to trip over anything.
Relieved to make it back to UB unscathed and with a vague sense of accomplishment for the day, I was quickly robbed of said satisfaction by the discovery that I had lost my keys. How that is possible, I’m not really sure, because I had them CLIPPED TO MY BELT WITH A CARIBINER THE WHOLE FREAKING DAY. THEY JINGLE WHEN I WALK, SO I KNOW THAT I HAVE THEM. AUGH. (Sound familiar, Aimee? ;D) Luckily, everyone else was already back from work, so they let me in. That did not, however, mean that I could get in my room. We individually padlock our doors, and I had given my spare key to Boitumelo for safe-keeping on the first or second day. So then I had to interrupt her Friday night to come and let me into my room – she didn’t end up appearing until almost 10, at which point we had all given up on the idea of going out for drinks because we were too tired. Such ballers we are.
Dinner, movie, bed.
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