Every night we conduct a debrief after dinner led by a different person each night. Debrief is based on the topic of the leader’s choice; he/she can choose to talk about what we experienced throughout the rotation of the day or to discuss a specific topic. Debrief generally includes a discussion of everything we experienced throughout the day but can also include specific topics or objectives. Tonight during debrief we took time out to check-in on ourselves and conduct what we call in our profession “self-care.”
Self-care is a concept we learned the first semester of nursing school. The basic idea acknowledges that nursing can be a very stressful, draining profession, and it is extremely important that we, as nurses, make sure we take care of ourselves so that we are able to take care of others. Self-care ensures that we promote and maintain our physical, emotional, and mental selves.
We’ve experienced so much in a very short amount of time: a vast and differing culture, a significant language barrier, fundamental differences in health care, differences in availability of resources… even jet lag! Unlike our previous rotations, which consisted of one shift per week, this rotation consists of daily shifts Monday – Friday. We’re thousands of miles away from everything we know and all our comforts. We have no capability to communicate with our friends or family while we are up on this mountain. It’s all very good; we are enjoying our time here. It’s also A LOT to process.
So tonight we took the time to talk about how we are feeling about everything we have experienced thus far during our time in Tanzania. We discussed some of our most favorite moments and some of the extremely emotional ones too. Tears were shed, laughs were had as we processed the past 10 days together. We discussed how we can cope with everything we’ve seen within these hospital walls and out in the communities, how we can rationalize leaving this beautiful country and resilient community, return home, and adjust back to life in Durham without forgetting it all. In typical nursing fashion, we’ve already identified and planned interventions we’ll employ when we get back to the states to aid us in our transition. :-)
It may sound cliché, even repetitive, but this trip has – and will continue to be – a life-changing experience for all of us. We are not coming home as the same people, nurses that we left as. We will leave a piece of ourselves here and take a piece of Tanzania home with us – we are forever changed. It’s important to acknowledge the magnitude of these two weeks through self-care.
After the emotional debrief, we strapped on our head lamps and made the short walk up to the football field (that’s a soccer field to us Americans) and searched for constellations in the thousands of stars making up the clear, night sky. It was the perfecting ending to a healing night.