Welcome to my blog, through the years a few of you have read my past blogs. During my time spent in Tanzania I brought to life our daily routines and adventures we found ourselves on in rn4africa.blogspot.com. I was young, not yet finished nursing school, but was discovering a passion for travel and a passion for Africa. Being pushed out of my comfort zone while living in a village found me returning home with a thirst to return to a continent that I fell in love with. While I finished off my last two years of nursing school I learned about an organization called Mercy Ships, a place where I could use my nursing skills back in Africa along the coast. As I graduated from nursing
school I found myself working on a surgical floor, still with the goal of Mercy Ships ahead of me.
In 2013 I found myself boarding the ship I had longed to work on. Mercy Ships became a reality, for four months I would call Guinea, in West Africa, home. Navigating the local market, planning away trips, getting to know our patients and the culture was eye opening. Again I blogged using rn4guinea.blogspot.com, giving me a platform to show you the world I was calling home.
Upon my return, I found myself seeking a greater challenge at work, wanting to gain more skills and hands on experience I started working in the Emergency department. Over the next two years I found myself being stretched as a nurse and gaining more skills and experiences. 2015 was the year I took a step forward professionally and obtained my Tropical Nursing Diploma from the School on Tropical Medicine in Liverpool England. Gaining insight to the world of tropical nursing and aid work globally and a new network of working professionals was setting me up for something bigger, somewhere in the world. No defined plan, just a calling and desire to be engaged in.
Through work a fellow RN (Melanie) in February presented a Job opportunity in Ethiopia. Through 8 weeks of preparation from the date we agreed to take “the job” to the date we made our way to Ethiopia was filled with anticipation and goodbyes. Our hospital is located in Addis Ababa, a 17 bed hospital that is in its infancy of existence. It is a hospital that has opened its doors in November 2015, however it still remains in the setting up phase. There are Canadian and Egyptian doctors, local Ethiopian nurses and us! Our (Melanie and I) role is to work with the local nurses; to mentor, train and support working with new surgical cases, maintain care standards, put together policies to work within, and support the doctors in their work.
That’s all the Nitti gritty, as we go I am sure we will grow and adapt to our role and demands asked of us. I am most excited to be on this journey with Melanie, a nurse who I have worked with in Canada in the Emergency room, who I see becoming dear friends. So I have named this blog nomadic nurse, as it may be a blog I can just keep for years to come, through future travels and working adventures. Please feel free to leave comments and questions or email me as well if you wish.
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