The following is from Road Scholar Meghan. It is the first in a series of posts about her recent humanitarian aid trip to Ghana. It has been edited for content and length.
I had (FINALLY) passed my nursing boards back in March/April and the state of MA gave me my official license to practice nursing. Shortly thereafter, I was looking for nursing jobs all over the place. I was still working at Boston Medical as a nursing assistant because I hadn't really found a nursing job yet. It's a common practice for nursing students who have finished school and even taken the board exam to stay at their current place of employment, as a nursing assistant, for a bit before going out to get a real nursing job. I was in the lounge one day having lunch and I saw a poster with the tagline: "Want to go to Ghana?"
I looked at the nurse sitting next to me and said "Sure! I'd love to go to Ghana!", paused for a bit, then said "Where's Ghana?"
So I "Wkikpedia'd" GHANA and this is what came up..enjoy.
Anyone that knows me realizes I don't take travel lightly. I'm all in if I say yes. Anna, a friend of mine from college, told me one day she was traveling to London for the weekend and, very lightly, asked me if I wanted to go with her. Much to her surprise, I said "Sure!", and bought the ticket. She barely knew my last name at that point, so it made for an interesting conversation. A few years later, she asked me if I wanted to take care of a bunch of kids at an American Boarding School in Switzerland....Yup! Love to! I've had Boston neighbors casually get to know me and at a girls night out, very lightly, ask me over a few drinks if I wanted to go to West Palm Beach in Florida for a few days....Just tell me when! You get the point. And I have the pics to prove it all.
Needless to say, when I said yes to Ghana, I wasn't taking it lightly either. But this trip was going to be somewhat different than any other one before it. I was going to be working, as a nurse, in a foreign country. Granted in Switzerland, my title was nurse, but I was supervised by an actual licensed RN and took care of privileged 6 to 10 year olds whose biggest complaint (minus my one Japanese hemophiliac who I rushed to the local hospital one night) was that their sunscreen smelled funny. Ghana children are going to have slightly different complaints, like "I have malaria". Just a smidge different. But from the moment I chose nursing as a career, I wanted to do international work. When I found out the trip was a short two weeks, it was enough to convince me it would be a great "stepping stone" or foot in the door to international healthcare.
I turned in my application. Knowing there were only a few slots available and lots of people applying, I was pretty sure I wouldn't get accepted but figured at least I'd be on their board when I applied next year. After an hour long telephone interview and two weeks, I got the email.
So I "Wkikpedia'd" GHANA and this is what came up..enjoy.
Anyone that knows me realizes I don't take travel lightly. I'm all in if I say yes. Anna, a friend of mine from college, told me one day she was traveling to London for the weekend and, very lightly, asked me if I wanted to go with her. Much to her surprise, I said "Sure!", and bought the ticket. She barely knew my last name at that point, so it made for an interesting conversation. A few years later, she asked me if I wanted to take care of a bunch of kids at an American Boarding School in Switzerland....Yup! Love to! I've had Boston neighbors casually get to know me and at a girls night out, very lightly, ask me over a few drinks if I wanted to go to West Palm Beach in Florida for a few days....Just tell me when! You get the point. And I have the pics to prove it all.
Needless to say, when I said yes to Ghana, I wasn't taking it lightly either. But this trip was going to be somewhat different than any other one before it. I was going to be working, as a nurse, in a foreign country. Granted in Switzerland, my title was nurse, but I was supervised by an actual licensed RN and took care of privileged 6 to 10 year olds whose biggest complaint (minus my one Japanese hemophiliac who I rushed to the local hospital one night) was that their sunscreen smelled funny. Ghana children are going to have slightly different complaints, like "I have malaria". Just a smidge different. But from the moment I chose nursing as a career, I wanted to do international work. When I found out the trip was a short two weeks, it was enough to convince me it would be a great "stepping stone" or foot in the door to international healthcare.
I turned in my application. Knowing there were only a few slots available and lots of people applying, I was pretty sure I wouldn't get accepted but figured at least I'd be on their board when I applied next year. After an hour long telephone interview and two weeks, I got the email.
"Congratulations! We welcome you as part of the 2008 medical team to Ghana!"
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment