“' I am Namujju Catherine a Midwifery student at International Paramedics. I came to Masaka Regional referral hospital and I wish to share my interesting experience with you since I came to do my internship at Masaka Region referral hospital.
I was attached to Nicu (Neonatal Intensive Care Unit for seven days and I have learnt a lot of things like administering oxygen to the neonates, separation of the neonates that is to say, those with jaundice are put in phototherapy and the premature are put in incubators and learning how to operate and use these machines has been the best experience.
I have learnt auscultation (bringing back neonates to life using an Ambu bag. I have also learnt that drugs are administered according to each child's body weight, providing kangaroo mother care, top tailing, caring of the cord, successful breast-feeding and many more.
The most challenging thing in neonatal is carrying out a last office on a neonate its a very bad experience and disorders like babies born with no mouth, under weighed babies below 1kg. Hydrocephalous (baby with water in the head, neonates menstruating and many other complications. The funniest thing there is that some neonates forget to breathe and we just have to always make them remember that they have to breathe due to (apnea, asphyxia, hypothermia and others) caffeine is given to premature to develop their body organs
The most cause of death due to the hospital is due to a lack of appropriate oxygen supply, as some neonates don't get the proper amount due to the big number and little equipment.
Lack of some drugs in the facility as mothers are told to buy these drugs and some fail due to their economical status. Having only one pulse meter in the ward which is used to monitor the spo2 (Oxygen concentration and the pulse) and each child needs to be monitored constantly as some oxygen lowers without our knowledge but the health workers i.e., the doctors and specialists are always there from 3 am-2 pm so at night the ward lacks specialists as they are seen Suring day only creating a huge gap during the night.
The incubators are shared i.e., two or there depending on the size due to insufficient incubators which eases cross-infection from one baby to another
Most neonates die due to the negligence of mothers as they fail to maintain Neonatal hygiene and failure to monitor their children as children are many and we can't watch them all at once. I am glad to share my experience with you and hope to share more with you. Thank you Youth With A Vision for supporting me in my education be blessed always.”
The limited number of medical persons in hospitals in Uganda yet its expensive to train a nurse is among the reasons why we support nursing students like Catherine.
We Thank Everyone that has helped Catherine to go back to school this semester.