Physicians for Peace work in Nagpur, India was featured in the region's English language newspaper.
One of the most important things we do at Physicians for Peace, through the talent and devotion of our volunteers, is address problems related to women’s and children’s health in developing countries. Often, sharing knowledge of simple post-natal care techniques can result in saving the lives of countless infants. Karen Horton, a senior nurse educator from Children’s Hospital of the King’s Daughters in Norfolk, Virginia, is currently on a Physicians for Peace mission to Nagpur, India where she and the Physicians for Peace team are training hundreds of pediatric nurses in these valuable techniques. She files this report about her inspiring experience:
After almost a day and a half of travel (including a 16 hour long direct flight between New York-Bombay) the Physicians for Peace team (consisting of Dr. Ed Kratokin, Dr. Sheetal Ajmani, and me) arrived at the Bombay International Airport on the evening of Oct 31st. We left Norfolk around noon on Thursday so, by this point, we had been traveling for almost a day and a half, and all we could think of was a hot shower and bed! Unlike Drs. Karatokin and Ajmani, who have been to India more than once, this was my very first trip to the country. I was anxious for my Indian adventure to begin and equally nervous about all our checked in bags (that included our training material and supplies) arriving in time and in one piece.
The scene at the airport, which is the busiest airport in South Asia and serves over 20 million passengers annually, could only be described as one of “organized chaos.” The minute you land, you are overwhelmed by the sheer number of people around you and yet somehow, at least as was the case with our flight, even with all the crowds and chaos, the process to get through the customs and baggage claim is rather painless (and yes, all our bags arrived safe and sound !:-). About 5 hours in a hotel room near the airport and we were back at the airport (this time it was the Mumbai domestic airport) to catch a 6AM flight to go to Nagpur, so we didn’t have any time to explore Mumbai, something we hope to do before we return to the U.S.
In my little experience, I find India to be a land of contrast, chaos, and wonderful impressions that are impossible to describe without resorting to clichés. Here in the world’s largest democracy that is home to almost 1/6th of total population, the enormous weight of history and the unparalleled drive toward development and modernity, the pervasive display of the wealth of the very rich and the stark picture of the extremely poor not only coexist but seem to flourish. Where cows and goats and people share the same overcrowded roads along with every form of mechanized and non-mechanized mode of transportation…It’s a sight and experience unlike any I have ever had before….
After a little rest on Saturday, we started on busy and productive training days on Sunday and Monday. Our focus during these two days was to conduct neonatal/pediatric support and nursing training for health professionals in Nagpur. On Sunday, we conducted a day long training session for over 150 pediatric nurses at the Central India’s Child Hospital and Research Institute in Nagpur. This was an overwhelming response since we were expecting less than a hundred participants to show up for this session and ended up with double the number of very keen nurses hungry to learn and had to scramble to accommodate them all since many of these nurses had travelled a good distance, and at a considerable expense of their time and money, to take part in the training… I started the training day with a lecture on infection control and basic hygiene (something that’s still a big issue health facilities in developing countries, including in India)…We also conducted S.T.A.B.L.E. (which stands for Sugar, Temperature, Airway, Blood pressure, Lab work, and Emotional support) training session. S.T.A.B.L.E. is a neonatal education program focusing exclusively on the post-resuscitation/pre-transport stabilization care of sick infants and has been proven to reduce infant mortality and morbidity and to improve the future health of children and their families. It is of particular need in India where the child mortality rate is still one of the highest among the developing countries. We continued working on the following two days with lectures and training sessions for nurses, doctors, and other health professionals in the area of NG tube placement, IV therapy techniques, thermal regulation, developmental care, and much more… Jumping right into teaching big groups of very eager health professionals, while also getting adjusted to summer-like heat, coupled with jet-lag and travel fatigue, has definitely been a new, and in some ways a hard, experience for me …However, the hunger for learning and attentiveness of those being trained, and being in the company of some of the most generous and hospitable people I have ever encountered, makes this more than a worthwhile experience, and one that I am ready to do all over again the next day with a new group of health professionals. Before I do that, I must catch some sleep since it is well past midnight here, and we have to get on the road pretty early tomorrow to travel to the Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College in Swangi (a town two hours drive from the city of Nagpur where we have been working for the last three days) to conduct the second phase of the training. Stay tuned for more…
