Study Abroad in Cambodia
by Rachel Finn, Nursing Student
Today (Mon 5/18) marks the end of the vacation part of our trip, and the beginning of the true work we set out for! Today is our first day at Sonja Kill Memorial Hospital, which is located in Kampot, Cambodia!
They are a charity hospital whose goal is to give affordable healthcare to patients in need. Payment of services is strictly based upon the patient’s ability to pay; the poor get treated for free while the ones who can afford it pay a fee. It is staffed mostly by Cambodians; however, many doctors and nurses come from abroad to work and help train the staff. Our, us Belmont people’s, main mission for this stop is to help further educate the doctors and nurses here, treat some patients, and help in anyway the hospital needs.
The beginning of the day included our first round of peanut butter and honey sandwiches for breakfast, the staple food for the remainder of our days here, and a tour of this beautiful open hospital. They have an outpatient (child and adult) department, inpatient (child and adult), maternity, surgery, women’s health, and an emergency department. They have onsite housing, which is where we are staying, and a kitchen to feed patients and staff, where we had delicious curry and a variety of native fruit for lunch!
Our nurse practitioners helped in the women’s clinic. Kate (our PT grad student) was all hands on deck, with their normal PT being off today, treating various patients. Our undergrad students did a variety of work here. Parts of the day some observed different wards of the hospital while others taught. Today, in particular, we taught various skills such as CPR, how to take vital signs, head-to-toe assessment, hand washing and infectious control, SBAR (a type of communication between nurses, doctors, techs, and anyone else involved in patient care), and UTI prevention. 
It was a busy day and people saw a lot of awesome things that will be lifetime stories.
At the end of the day, we ate dinner at a place called Victoria’s. Fun fact, the first C-section performed at Sonja Kill was done for the owners of Victoria’s! We are all exhausted but excited about the work we did today and even more excited for tomorrow!