My First Vietnamese Hospital Experience

Today is the fifth day since my arrival in Vietnam. I've been pigging out on vietnamese food ever since, which is an awesome and very satisfying thing ;)). Though for the long haul, I know I will be frustrated with my hoggish self. I'm trying to keep my metabolism up by travelling by bike instead of taking a cab or using Xe Om like how I used to do in the past. My love for cycling is an added bonus. I really can't complain much about my life right now. :x

Yesterday, I would've talked differently though. It was my first day at the National Hospital of Pediatrics. I should have known the day would turn out bad the moment I woke up because hell, I woke up at 4am no thanks to a damn mosquito that kept buzzing around my head and stinging me in the fingers. (I've learnt my lesson though, now I have to overcome my laziness and set up a mosquito-protection net - or whatever you wanna call it - every night... :-<)


Anyway, the cascade of fail went on as I made my way to the hospital only to realize all of a sudden that I was still wearing my home slippers. That meant: immediate U-turn and 10.000 more for my driver. Then, because people kept telling me it takes more than half an hour to get to the hospital in the morning because of traffic jam, I left home at almost 7am, only to arrive at 7:10 (sharpppp) and kinda waited 40 mins for my appointment. I could have really used that time to sleep, sigh.

But all that compared to what went on in the first hour of my internship was nothing. I talked to the vice president of the hospital at the very first, which was a really nice conversation actually. Her name is Dr. Dung, and as I later found out, she's a friend of my grandpa Chuong. My grandpa is one of the coolest grandpas in the world, and Dr. Dung is kinda awesome too. I guess awesome people tend to hang with other awesome people :D. Anyway Dr. Dung led me to the Neonatology department where I would be spending my interning time and introduced me to her right hand - Dr. Ha - who is the vice-chief doctor of the department or something, and a chief nurse with the same name who is in charge of the ward for the premature infants.

But as soon as Dr. Dung left, I was kinda left stranded. After changing into hospital clothes, I looked for somebody to turn to but they were all gone. There was only a nurse sitting at the reception desk doing something on the PC, so I thought I'd talk to her, maybe she knew what I should/could do. The two-minute convo went down like this:

"Em chào chị ạ." (Hi.)

"...."

"Chị đang làm gì thế ạ?" (What are you doing?)

"...."

I already felt unwelcome enough but decided to try one more time anyway.

"Em là Phương, chị tên là gì ạ?" (I'm Phuong, what's your name?)

"...."

"...."

"Hiền. Em đi mà tìm bác sĩ ở cái phòng bên trái kia kìa." (Hien. Go look for the doctors in the room on the left over there.)

Yeah, that's about it. Reeeaaaal nice, nurse. What can I say? That's just so typical Vietnamese. It's like they had a grand prize for the most unfriendly nurse and everyone strived to be that one and only Ultra Bitch 3000 (I hope no one gets this reference [-O<). The other nurses were not much better, only one or two did actually find it not annoying that I'm there. To have a nurse to be interested in your presence or appreciate your help on any level is really too much to ask for. I may be overgeneralizing nurses in Vietnam, but until I meet a nurse who is different, I can't be really proven wrong. :|

Well yeah, the doctors though are very friendly and helpful, I can come to them with any question. But nice people are busy people, so they're only so much help as time allows. I'm really lucky to have Jenny here, that German physiotherapist I was talking about before. She's fun to hang with and she kinda is the only person who can show me around a little. I wouldn't know if I could survive on my own in the ferocious nurse regime here... I'm pretty sure if I wasn't with Jenny, I wouldn't be able to do nearly as much as I am doing now with the kids; and the nurses, oh they would so totally bully me to surrender.

Because I don't have any practical skills yet, I really am not much of a help for the doctors. The nurses would like me to mind my own business and leave them alone so they are unapproachable too. Which led me to the conclusion that the only thing I can do during this internship is really just for my own: getting as much experience as I can.

I will kind of study neonatal diseases at home and 'get my hands on the real thing' in the hopsital. I mean, where or when else can I get the green light to do whatever I want with the patients like now? I am even more privileged than medical students in their 4th year here in Hanoi (I met some cute students today, talked to them and thought, "Damn, am I lucky to be studying in Germany or what? :P) I can always direct my questions to the docs too so it's really not too bad.

The initial disappointment about the internship is long gone inside of me, now I rather see it as a huge chance at gaining knowledge and experience. There are some really nasty diseases here that I'm sure I would hardly be able to lay eyes on in Germany. On another day when I'm less sleepy, I'll write about them.

I'm just gonna end this post on this abrupt note because my eyelids are becoming way too heavy...

*ETA: I totally forgot to write about the hospital itself, which does not look like a hospital at all and really shocked me on the first day. But that will be told on another day when I'm more awake, too.