My Voluntary Nursing Trip to Nepal
Donation protected
Hello, my name is Alice Moseley. I am in my second year of Bournemouth University studying Mental Health Nursing and I have been given the amazing opportunity to do one of my practice placements in Kathmandu in Nepal; this is a five week placement which will commence in September 2016.
Work the World is a company who organise placements abroad as well as providing consistent support before and throughout the trip. They ensure that each student has a placement suited to their course, preferences, interests and that they still achieve their learning outcomes. As well as that they provide accommodation and our meals.
When I am in Nepal I will be working in hospitals and in the community. My placement will be tailored to mental health but I will also have the opportunity to work with patients who have physical illnesses. This will therefore give me a wider breadth of knowledge of the difference in healthcare in developing countries compared to that of our own.
Currently in the UK there is a lot of media coverage about mental health as we begin to remove the stigma attached to mental illness. This placement will be very educational and will require me to embrace a completely different culture as well as the challenges that come with it. Volunteering in Kathmandu gives me the opportunity to support patients through recovery and crisis which is something I am extremely passionate about. Moreover, it would be mutually beneficial as not only am I helping the patients but it is also rewarding for myself as it gives me the experience of doing something I love in another country.
This experience does come at a cost which I am determined to fundraise for. My aim is to raise £3,000 which will cover the costs of the registration fee with work the world, flights to Nepal, accommodation, vaccinations, insurance and travel costs to the hospitals. I have also been given the option to do a village experience which involves living with a host family in a remote location where the resources there will be extremely limited. It is likely that professionals will have to adapt to the poor conditions and improvise with the limited supplies which makes this a challenge I would love to undertake.
Nepal is a developing country which has high rates of poverty. In April 2015 there was earthquakes in Kathmandu which had a devastating effect on many people including serious injuries as well as many becoming homeless.
In Nepal the mental health services are not as advanced or widely recognised as the UK. In 2014 the World health Organisation reported that there was only 72 professionals working in mental health inpatient care. There is a lack of inpatient acute wards which are vital in protecting patients and those around them when they are in crisis. This concludes that 0.2 Nepalese citizens per 100,000 would have the opportunity to be admitted to hospital when they are at their acute stage of a mental health crisis.
Many professionals in Nepal have had no official training to work in mental health. Due to the lack of funding they have had to transfer their skills from previous training to attempt to care for patients suffering with a mental illness.
I am asking my friends, family and members of the public to consider donating to this brilliant cause. I will be eternally grateful for any donations to my trip and will make the most of every second of it. I would appreciate you sharing this with others as I know that mental health effects almost everyone in some way and is close to many people’s hearts.
Thank you for taking the time to read this.
Work the World is a company who organise placements abroad as well as providing consistent support before and throughout the trip. They ensure that each student has a placement suited to their course, preferences, interests and that they still achieve their learning outcomes. As well as that they provide accommodation and our meals.
When I am in Nepal I will be working in hospitals and in the community. My placement will be tailored to mental health but I will also have the opportunity to work with patients who have physical illnesses. This will therefore give me a wider breadth of knowledge of the difference in healthcare in developing countries compared to that of our own.
Currently in the UK there is a lot of media coverage about mental health as we begin to remove the stigma attached to mental illness. This placement will be very educational and will require me to embrace a completely different culture as well as the challenges that come with it. Volunteering in Kathmandu gives me the opportunity to support patients through recovery and crisis which is something I am extremely passionate about. Moreover, it would be mutually beneficial as not only am I helping the patients but it is also rewarding for myself as it gives me the experience of doing something I love in another country.
This experience does come at a cost which I am determined to fundraise for. My aim is to raise £3,000 which will cover the costs of the registration fee with work the world, flights to Nepal, accommodation, vaccinations, insurance and travel costs to the hospitals. I have also been given the option to do a village experience which involves living with a host family in a remote location where the resources there will be extremely limited. It is likely that professionals will have to adapt to the poor conditions and improvise with the limited supplies which makes this a challenge I would love to undertake.
Nepal is a developing country which has high rates of poverty. In April 2015 there was earthquakes in Kathmandu which had a devastating effect on many people including serious injuries as well as many becoming homeless.
In Nepal the mental health services are not as advanced or widely recognised as the UK. In 2014 the World health Organisation reported that there was only 72 professionals working in mental health inpatient care. There is a lack of inpatient acute wards which are vital in protecting patients and those around them when they are in crisis. This concludes that 0.2 Nepalese citizens per 100,000 would have the opportunity to be admitted to hospital when they are at their acute stage of a mental health crisis.
Many professionals in Nepal have had no official training to work in mental health. Due to the lack of funding they have had to transfer their skills from previous training to attempt to care for patients suffering with a mental illness.
I am asking my friends, family and members of the public to consider donating to this brilliant cause. I will be eternally grateful for any donations to my trip and will make the most of every second of it. I would appreciate you sharing this with others as I know that mental health effects almost everyone in some way and is close to many people’s hearts.
Thank you for taking the time to read this.
Organizer
Alice Rose
Organizer
