But luckily, being inside the AIMS hospital is like being in a different world altogether. It starts with the way we're treated by the doctors and nurses. They are all so eager to learn from us, and so incredibly kind and welcoming. Another difference is that in the hospital, we can sometimes bypass the cultural norms that make touch (especially touching someone of the opposite gender) an issue. This makes our work less constricting while we're here.
Most of the time, we just start our day with a loose idea of a schedule, which changes drastically throughout the day. We could be working in one department and then we are told that it's time to teach a class or go to another department. Since I have the most experience in the nicu, I've been able to spend most of my time with the babies, working with them and even showing some parents how to do massage with their little ones when they take them home from the hospital.
A couple of us have also spent a lot of time teaching! I wasn't really expecting to do so much of that (or any of that!) when we planned the trip, but this is India--you just go with the flow! We put together some powerpoints over the weekend and my teaching partner and I have worked together really well presenting! Again, the doctors and nurses are very receptive and eager to learn what we're teaching, which makes it easy. And as we finish one class, we step outside and are ushered off to (surprise!) teach another group. So we've had some long days of running around the hospital, working and teaching and spreading the Heart Touch message. It's absolutely exhausting, but it's amazing to think of the program we're starting here. We know that this is going to become part of the education that nurses receive here and will become just a regular part of what they do with their patients and how awesome is it to think that we are the group that is paving the way for that to happen?
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