Sister, Sister

I thought I would share with you some stories from work.

At the beginning of every shift, I do my rounds and say good-morning to my patients...as all good nurses do. To make sure that they're still alive and in stable condition and to introduce myself. But they don't speak English. So the first thing I say is 'aasalemu alaykum' which is the common greeting meaning 'peace be with you'. And they say 'alaykum assalem' in return, which means 'and unto you - peace'. And the very next thing I say is...'sheway sheway Arabi'...meaning 'very little Arabic'. If I don't say this...they will get very frusterated with me for not understanding them. So it's best just to get it out in the open from the beginning.

Then I write my name on the white board by their bed, first in English then in Arabic. One morning last week I was in a rush and so I wrote my Arabic name from left to right instead of from right to left. My patients called me 'Arat' for half the day until I caught on as to why. We all had a good laugh about that.

The patients here refer to us as 'sister'. Even the male nurses get called 'sister'. This goes back to the '70 when most of the foreign nurses were catholic nuns. And I guess the name just stuck. Alot of the doctors even call us 'sister'.

Another unusual aspect of the job is that we have to accompany physicians when they visit their female patients. First we go into the patients room and say 'rajul'...meaning 'man', as the doctor waits outside. And the women immediately dive for cover. They grab their ever-ready abuyas and face coverings and once the coast is clear...the doctor can come in.

For every female patients room, there is a sign on the door that says 'female'. The first time I saw a hospital ward here, I thought it was so odd that all the doors were closed. Really, unless you go into the rooms, the patients are an invisible part of the ward. Once admitted into their rooms the patient and sitter hardly ever leave.

All patients are accompanied by at least one sitter...usually a family member. Sometimes they decide to bring their entire family and all just live at the hospital together. One lady brought three of her children and her husband. They have a tendency to make themselves feel as much at home as possible. This one patient brought a rug into his room that is about 5 feet by 7 feet. He actually just pushed the bed aside and now virtually lives on this carpet. All his male family members come and they just sit cross-legged on the rug and drink tea all day. Sometimes patients will actaully ask to sleep on the floor. The bed is just alot softer then what their used to.

An unusal nursing duty of mine is having to know the orientation of Mecca. Today I saw a lady praying and she was facing entirely the wrong direction. I could have interupted her, but I thought better of it. If they ask...I tell them.