Reagan, Cali, Angela, Catie, and Me in front of August Victoria Hospital

So I thought I would talk a little about why I was really able to come to the Holy Land. Nursing! We have clinicals almost every Sunday (because sabbath is Saturday) and then usually once more sometime during the week. The Associate student also hold two 2 hour class periods each week and a test. But we are done with the tests and now get to begin with Kaplan testing. The clinicals are really great experiences. We mainly observe because there are a lot of limitations on what we are alllowed to do here. We also learned that if we wear our stethoscopes, we are easily mistaken for medical students, which I have found to be beneficial sometimes, but not very honest... Our focus this semester is Obstetrics and Pediatrics. We have four different hospitals that we go to.  At Augusta Victoria we spend time on their specialized pediatric floor and their pediatric dialysis center. This week on Wednesday, we were there from 11-3. It was pretty slow. All the nurses really do here is take vitals signs and give meds. Last Sunday was my first time here that I was actually able to do a full assessment on a patient. It was great! I never thought I would miss those. The nurses document also, but something that envy them of is how much patient interaction they have. They know their patients so well and spend a lot of time with them. Most of the patients here are always accompanied by a family member. therefore, the floors turn into these small communities where all of the family members take time to get to know each other and really help each other out. It's really cool. At the end of our shift on Wednesday, there was this girl who tried to talk to us but we only speak English and she only spoke Arabic. So I pulled our a piece of paper and folder her a little finger puppet and drew some eyes on it. Luckily, I then remembered that I had stuck my little Arabic cheat sheet from class and was able to ask her name and then she asked mine. We then named the puppet and played a game where she would try to catch my finger with the puppet. It was a very small interaction, but, to me, it was really amazing! I am really starting to the love the people here. They are so welcoming. They are people just like me and we are all children of God. I hope I never forget this little girl!