RN and midwife Shi Wei Tan on volunteering in Zimbabwe and PNG

Registered nurse and midwife Shi Wei Tan has long had a strong passion to serve people in different nations with her skills. In 2015, and again in 2017, Shi Wei volunteered in Zimbabwe. Last year she joined the Youth with a Mission medical ship in PNG for the first time.

‘A big part of both trips in Zimbabwe and PNG was health promotion,’ she shares. ‘Hygiene, safe water sources, women’s health, TB, immunisations etc.’

Volunteering in Zimbabwe

Shi Wei volunteered in Zimbabwe through a Perth organisation called Cosmos Alliance. Based in Bulawayo, she joined a team of nurses, doctors and local healthcare workers who visited different remote villages daily to do assessments and provide education, treatments and medication.

More severe cases would be sent to hospital for further testing and treatment, ‘all fully funded by generous donors,’ she explained.

‘I remember one particular older man walked in with a walking stick. He told me he fell off the roof and could not walk for three months. It had been six months since the incident when I saw him. We got him a hip x-ray, and he had a fractured neck of femur! For six months! We managed to liaise with the orthopaedic surgeon and get him the treatment he needed.’

Volunteering in PNG

In PNG, Shi Wei primarily provided antenatal care. ‘It’s very different to antenatal care in Australia,’ she explained.

‘For example, we did routine malaria, syphilis and HIV testing using rapid diagnostics tests and a small drop of blood. Tetanus shots were given during pregnancy as some women would birth in the “garden/bush” and use unclean scissors. There were no ultrasounds. Due dates were estimated based on LNMP or fundal measurements.

‘In some villages,’ she adds, ‘I was able to catch up with local village birth attendants, some of whom had a little training while others had no training. I sat and chatted with them and the two of the most common concerns where “losing too much blood” and “lack of pain relief options”.’

Highlights of volunteering

For Shi Wei, the highlights of all her trips include working with local nurses and midwives, learning from each other and sharing knowledge.

‘The scope of practice and knowledge from local nurses and midwives were incredible, as they serve their people with little resources and access to technology and equipment. One PNG nurse I worked with debrided a diabetic foot ulcer in the village with a suture cutter, some sterile gauze and saline.’

Other highlights included learning about different cultures and languages, making friends with amazing people from all around the world, and singing with the locals.

Challenges of volunteering

While volunteering overseas is often an incredible experience, it comes with challenges too. For Shi Wei, one of the main challenges is knowing that the local nurses and midwives want to learn more but they are stymied by limited access and resources available to them.

Another big challenge was reliable equipment and operational knowledge. ‘When equipment fails there is no one trained to fix the machines,’ she says. ‘In PNG I was shocked to see the most up-to-date technology for blood testing such as FBE and U&E, however the FBE machine broke down for months with no one to repair it.

‘And in Zimbabwe, one of the hospitals had donated CT and x-ray machines but no one trained to operate or work them.’

Thinking of volunteering?

Shi Wei has some great advice for colleagues thinking of volunteering overseas.

‘Go with a humble heart. Don’t judge the way people live or their traditions and cultures. Expect to learn from others and don’t think you know everything – the local nurses and midwives are absolutely amazing.

‘When engaging with people of different cultures and languages, try to use local terminology or words. The way you phrase things is important in how people understand your question. Also find out the appropriate way to address someone, i.e. in Zimbabwe “Gogo” means grandmother.’

It’s also important, Shi Wei noted, to ‘provide education that they can relate to. In Zimbabwe we would often provide exercises that did not require equipment [that they did not have]. In PNG when I would chat with the village birth attendants, I had to think outside the box in regards to the resources they had – for example, I drew acupressure points on a piece of leaf.’