Amy Koester

We arrived and were placed in groups of two on different wards. I was placed on the male surgical ward. This ward was separated into three sections with six beds in each section. Privacy was provided by a curtain between beds, but these were used rarely. We were paired with a nurse and spent the day shadowing her and assisting her. The disparity in the resources available to the nurses in Grenada compared to the resources available in the US is astonishing. All documentation is done with pen and paper, gloves were reused patient to patient in order to conserve them, and the nurse to patient ratio was 15 patients to one nurse at the time I was there. Due to their dearth of equipment, the nurses demonstrated excellent improvisation skills. I was also extremely impressed with the level of care and attention the nurses gave to each of their patients. The nurse I was paired with knew each of her patients intimately and made sure to spend some quality time with each patient as she went about her duties.