A TEAM of nursing students swapped the wards of Teesside for a two week voluntary stint working in a rural Cambodian hospital and children’s orphanages.
The Teesside University medical students worked in Battambang province and the capital, Phnom Penh, with the Transform Healthcare Cambodia charity.
Eve Wilson and Kate Smith, both 20 from Hartlepool; Joanna Ferguson, 29, from Dalton near Thirsk, Laura Ewins, 28 of Stockton and Mollie Hart, 20 from Moorsholm, east Cleveland, tried their hand a variety of tasks while on the trip.
They visited the hospital’s operating theatres and emergency room and observed nursing care on the wards. They also visited the hospital’s maternity department, where they witnessed birth of a baby and met with Cambodian nursing students at the Battambang Nursing School.
During the expedition they were joined Graham Jones, a senior lecturer in the school of health and social care at the university, and his daughter Sarah, who is studying for her masters in disaster management and sustainable development at Northumbria University.
Miss Wilson said: “When I first heard about the opportunity to undertake an international placement in Cambodia, I thought it sounded amazing.
“I was interested in experiencing healthcare internationally and wanted to develop my own knowledge of nursing care delivered by healthcare professionals in a country like Cambodia.”
The students also visited the capital city; Phnom Penh, where they worked in a children’s orphanage, The Joy Daycare Centre, and visited the killing fields and Tuol Sleng, a former school, which was used as the notorious S-21 Prison by the Khmer Rouge regime.
They also endured a 10 hour trip to work at the David Centre Orphanage, which is in a remote place called Anlong Veng, by the Cambodian border with Thailand.
Miss Ferguson added: “I’d not had any experience of working in either A&E or maternity back in the UK, so that was a completely new learning experience for me. I also love to experience new cultures and try new things and was determined to sample the cuisine.”
To find out more visit www.transformhealthcarecambodia.org.uk
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