One of my responsibilities outside of the OR is data entry.
Now don’t get too excited because not many people are enthusiastic about the
monotony of paperwork. Nonetheless, I had to tackle the battle of updating our
medical forms and charting system and then sharing the changes with the nurses.
My coworker, Sue, and I enter the majority of forms on the computer and had the
same headaches day in and day out- so we worked on this project
together for weeks. On my last day, I led the nurse staff meeting and
in-service on data entry. It started about a hour late, but nowadays, I’m so
flexible it scares me. The new
changes were well received and all the nurses agreed my teaching skills are fine
(which is high praise in Salone). I give credit to the incredible teachers in
my family. I gathered the paperwork the nurses practiced on for data entry and
returned to my office to check off another task on my list.
The only thing remaining on my list was “Korea". A month ago we discharged Korea and my heart was torn to see her leave, but also so
happy that she was dry and healed. Korea kept telling us she was afraid to go home so we found an auntie to take care of
her in Freetown. In my western-world frame of mind, I really wanted to send
Korea home with a wheelchair. She still needed help to get around and daily
physical therapy to get her legs straight to walk again. However, one of
our drivers took Korea and her Auntie home, and returned saying it was not a
practical place for a wheelchair.
I prayed for Korea who was always on my heart and on my list to
follow-up with every Friday when she was suppose to come for physical therapy. The last week before I left, we had a
meeting with amazing Christian organization that is helping women in Sierra
Leone (unfortunately, due to privacy, I can’t share more) and I immediately
thought of Korea. We had not seen her in over a month so I made a plan on my
last day to go find her with the help of our driver and ward supervisor,
Bernadette. It was a journey into a part of town I never been to and climb down
a steep muddy hill, but we found Korea at her Auntie’s house. Her cousin
carried her outside and I noticed she had the same clothes on when she left
AWC, had lost weight, but thankful to see smile form on her face when she saw
visitors. People in the village gathered because the news spread of a white
woman (yes, that would me!). I was offered a yellow plastic water container to
sit on, but worried I would break it, I opted for the ground next to Korea. I
was happy to hear she was still dry and we took time to evaluate if this was
the best place for Korea. It started to rain so we said our goodbyes quickly to
make the trek up the hill before it became impossible. It made me think- it was
impossible for Korea on a daily basis to get around here. I was thankful for
God’s perfect timing with the meeting with the women’s organization in my last
week so we could partner together to care for Korea.
I found myself back in my office, staying well past five o’clock finishing last minute jobs- clinical governance paperwork, typing up staff meeting minutes, and organizing the education schedule. As I checked the tasks off my to-do list along with Velcro and data entry, I left some jobs for when I returned. I finally felt better about going home. If I had only time to accomplished one thing before I left, it would be making sure that Korea was taken care of at her new home. My list was complete.
