Pharmacy Student Reflects on Experience in China
The plane is taxiing for take-off to Hong Kong. I find that my heart still rests in a small hospital in central China. Orphans. Pharmacy. The three flowed into a wonderful opportunity to see babies' lives saved and technological leaps forward in the newly established hospital laboratory and pharmacy. In a few short weeks excellent protocols for healthcare came into place.
It was an amazing opportunity to care for abandoned children whose disfigurements and disabilities paled in the light of their amazing will to survive when they required acute hospital care. It was a joy to experience healthy children happy in a warm, nurturing haven of love in the orphanages. Serving in these settings left me feeling as if I'd experienced a metamorphosis of my own.
Serving in these settings left me feeling as if I'd experienced a metamorphosis of my own.
I organized the pharmacy and worked with nursing staff on protocols. Each day held new challenges. Sometimes we did not know if a child would live another day. The quality of care mixed with grace brought about amazing recoveries, successful cleft palate and lip repairs, and loving outreach to indigents with serious limb infections. The Healthcare Centre also offers excellent care for employees, and I was able to assist with developing ambulatory pharmacy services.
Having arrived on a cusp of opportunity, I had the privilege of watching wonderful advances occur in a few short weeks. The investment of medical personnel from overseas is enabling the energetic Chinese staff to grow exponentially in their skill level and knowledge base. Without them, I could not have instituted a significant upgrade in the hospital medication formulary, nor Dr. Chris her intensive STD educational in-services that were translated into Chinese. Nystatin, frequently used for the fungal infections often plaguing children with cleft palates is worth two weeks wages if purchased from abroad. I was able to develop a formula from tablets. Now they are compounding it at a great savings. And all the nursing staff is trained to do it!
Donations from Palouse Medical Center and pharmacy professors from Pullman provided much needed medications, a computer for the pharmacy and medical records, glucometers, medical texts, and funds for laboratory equipment. I am grateful to have been an agent of change during an opportune moment of growth.
"And where has Kitty been these past six weeks during her overseas pharmacy rotation?" Those who know her best would answer, "Where she's always longed to be - in the very heart of China."
This reflection written by Katherine "Kitty" Anderson, studying to be a Doctor of Pharmacy.
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