Tonight I had the privilege to present at the Hospital Inservice with Jenni. Usually every Wednesday night during the 10 month field service, there is a Hospital inservice. There is a sign in sheet, so we can collect a certificate which can be used as CPD evidence when we leave the ship. Sometimes topics covered can be Maxillofacial Surgery by Dr Gary, Goitre removal or reconstructive surgery, sometimes a surgeon will share about working in the Middle East, sometimes its even about managing stress when we see challenging cases in the Hospital. Well tonight, it was Radiology. To be honest, I was very nervous as I thought who wants to hear what I do everyday – however Jenni worked as a Rad Tech on the USNS Mercy, the US Government Military Hospital Ship – So we decided to talk about our experiences doing our jobs on a hospital ship. ‘Radiology on two ships’ The USNS Mercy is almost double the size of the Africa Mercy and while they are both Hospital Ships – they do function quite differently. The Mercy has around 15 Wards, 12 OR’s and a thousand crew. They sail into countries and are usually there for around 3 weeks performing surgeries on patients who have been pre-selected. Jenni shared how there were similarities in terms of getting meals in the galley, using the gym in the evenings, however her ‘cabin’ had 150 beds, and the bunks were 3 high! They were very restricted on shore leave, had to respect military regulations and a daily muster at 08:00. The Radiology department is also quite different. Yes they have a CT scanner, general X-ray and Ultrasound like us, but they have much more of a imaging focus in their OR’s with 5 full size c-arms and many portable x-rays to cover their wards. They also have onboard Radiologists who report their cases immediately. It was really interesting to hear and helped me to understand Radiology on a larger scale. We too have bought a new full size c-arm and so it excites me to hear how we can learn from them. I have also learned that you do not have to be American to serve on either the USNS Mercy or Comfort as I previously thought. Therefore I can dream that one day, maybe that will happen.. My section about the Africa Mercy, then talked about each Surgical Speciality that we offer onboard – and gave an example where Radiology was involved. Its very easy for Orthopaedics to say we X-ray pre-op and post op to check healing, but also all the CT’s required for the complex head and neck surgeries that are performed. Even the Urology type scans we do to look at ureters and bladder pathology. Radiology does indeed guide our decision making.
I count it such a privilege being involved in so many of our patients lives and the words from this mornings devotional resonate with me. My testimony of being in a position of service, the gratefulness I felt, that it may be like incense to God. That my prayer would be, would He continue to use me in ways I cannot imagine.
“Let my prayer be set before You as incense, The lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice” Psalm 141:2
trustinginmercy 