First day at Chi Mei!  And boy oh boy, was it filled with new experiences... 


I woke up at around 3:00am feeling bright-eyed and bushy-tailed.  With the 14 hour time difference between here and Utah, my body was telling me it was 1:00pm on a lovely Sunday afternoon.  So after laying in bed for a couple more hours (unbeknownst to me, my roommates were also all awake), we were up and ready to go scrounge up some breakfast! 


Here we are at a lovely little bakery we found.  One of the benefits of Taiwan is that the food here is superbly inexpensive, and pretty darn yummy!

After breakfast, we hurried back to our dorms to meet with our instructor.  It was right about then that it started raining.  Hard.  Guess which genius forgot to pack a poncho?  Yep, me.  Fortunately, the rain in Taiwan is warm, so it wasn't too horrible.  (Don't worry though, I bought a poncho at one of the many 7-11's that dot this nation after clinicals were over.)  Despite the rain, we arrived at Chi Mei in one piece! 


After we arrived, we were greeted by Wei-Ying, the Director of Nursing for Chi Mei.  She actually spent 2 years in Utah earning her PhD in Nursing from the University of Utah.  She seemed really excited when I told her I wanted to work at Huntsman!  Wei-Ying and all of her colleges seemed thrilled to have us there, and jumped and applauded each time we said anything in Mandarin (which realistically was only hello and thank you), but it made us feel very welcome all the same!  


Wei-Ying told us a little about the hospital, which really made me feel fortunate to be working there!  Chi Mei is a 1200 bed facility with a 100 bed ER (Ask any nurse you know, that's huge).  In 2011, the Nursing department earned the Magnet Award for Nursing Excellence, which is the highest honor in the nation of Taiwan.  Chi Mei is the first hospital in Southern Taiwan to possess the Da Vinci Robotic Surgery System, and pioneered the Laser Knife therapy now used at Huntsman to treat Cancer patients.  Chi Mei even has a mobile unit for pap smears and mammograms, providing preventative care for those in remote areas of Taiwan.  Pretty cool, eh?  I thought that just sitting in that hospital was the end-all beat-all, until I went to my unit:  Hospice and Oncology.


(This is a picture that I didn't really expect to see... It's Christ comforting a child who has been diagnosed with cancer.  The Nurse manager explained to us, in broken English, that "Jesus had cancer too."  If that isn't the best explanation of the Atonement I've ever heard, I don't know what is.)

The name for this particular Hospice and Oncology unit is, "Chi-An", which interpreted to English means, "Amazing Grace."  I could certainly see why.  The nursing staff is incredible.  They care for their patients in such a kind, compassionate way.  The doctors are so unassuming and kind.  The head of Oncology, Dr. Fong, even offered to take me on rounds with him (He told me to come and find him next Tuesday and he would do his rounds entirely in English, just for me!)!!!  Traditional Chinese medicine and western technology work together to ensure the best possible outcome for patients.  It's unreal!! 


(Me in front of the Unit)

In addition to everyone condescending to speak English to us (when realistically we're in Taiwan and should be speaking Mandarin), offering to buy us things, take us to see fun parts of the hospital, (you name it, they did it), we also made some new friends! 

The woman on the left (in the white jacket) was the Clinical Psychologist for the unit (I can't remember her name), and I believe the woman on the right was her intern.  (Jessica is the other white girl, her and I will be on the same unit the entirety of our time at Chi Mei).  The Clinical Psychologist explained to us that, in addition to using westernized evidence-based psychology to help her patients, she also accounts for their strongly Chinese heritage by using card readings to help her patients feel more at ease (kind of like one of our psychologists reading a passage from the bible to their patients).  Being the wonderful and accommodating people that they are, the psychologist and her intern offered to do a card reading for Jessica and I!  It was quite impressive!  I think mine said listen to your heart and not your head, let your animal spirit guide you... I don't remember much.  But I definitely remember one of Jessica's cards.  It said, "When you get nervous, turn to service!"  The psychologist went on to tell us that when we get nervous about serving people we can't necessarily communicate with, we should simply try to serve them.  If we did that, everything would work out fine!  (Little did she know, that fit right into what we're taught as members of the Church! )


Overall, this day has been completely amazing. And in case anyone was wondering, I did try some new food!  (And yes, that is fish with the skin still on it.)

 More to come!  Zài jiàn!