Topics

1. Why did I choose to work at Japan Heart?

After I graduated from university I didn’t know where I would go or where I would work. One day my friend told me that Japan Heart needed staff and that I should apply. When I arrived home I prepared my CV and applied to Japan Heart after researching this hospital.
After I found out that this organization treats patients for free I started becoming interested because during my studies I always volunteered with many organizations. They all had the purpose of helping people in Cambodia by providing medical treatment for free or food and money for poor families. Because of my experiences, when I saw Japan Heart provides medical care for free I became interested in their activities.

After around 2 months I started to really love my job at Japan Heart because they taught me many things that I never did before. They also taught me how to be a good midwife and showed me how amazing this job can be. Before I worked here I thought that midwives can only do deliveries but actually this is not true. In fact, we can do many things not just deliveries and from that time I just feel that I love this job more from day to day. I will start to try and study more what a midwife can do.

2. What do I think about the ultrasound machine?

When I saw a photo of a fetus I thought it was very amazing and very cute. After that, I felt that I wanted to see how it will grow up. Before I had only heard how a baby grows up like this or like that but I had never seen a realistic photo like this. From that time, I felt love easily and I really wanted to know how the baby will change as it grows. I try to take note of the ultrasound machine results and try to follow-up with all patients that come for check-ups here. With this feeling, I want to help these babies grow up happy and healthy.

The first day I used ultrasound felt very surprised and also wondered how midwives use the ultrasound machine. So I started to study from them. First, they taught me about how to do a checkup by ultrasound. At first, it was just the basics and after that, I felt very interested in learning more. When I gained experience, I also learned how to explain to our patients. For example, when the ultrasound detects a problem, how can we explain to the patient and give them more details about how to take care during pregnancy. After that, I felt like I really wanted to know about everything related to pregnancy. I studied hard and also I asked my more experienced colleagues. After around one year I felt as though my knowledge and my ability had grown compared to the past. Now I can look back on my experiences with pride.

3. What makes me happy

I am most happy when my knowledge increases and also I can see smiles from patients to me. When it looks like they very happy with our work and feel comfortable with us, they come to checkup with us. Some of them even say they never met medical staff as good as Japan Heart.

Also, when we do an ultrasound scan for them when their babies are small and we show them, they are very surprised and very happy. The patients say they’ve never seen anything like this before. We start doing checkups for them until the baby comes out healthy. We are also happy when we see babies with no problems. They thank us every time and some patients say that we are the best staff that they have ever met before because we show kindness to the patients and always help patients without getting money. When I hear things like this from them it makes me really want to try my best!

4.What makes me sad

When we try to explain to patients but they seem like they don’t trust us and they are not so worried about their health and their baby. Often they think that because it is not their first pregnancy and they have many children already that they will never have problems as we explain. Also, one more thing is about ultrasound is that in Cambodia, many people think that having frequent ultrasound-scans causes a baby’s condition to get worse. Here we have two types of ultrasound machines. One is an external abdominal one and the other is an internal vaginal one. Did you know that? Some people never want to use the internal one after we do an ultrasound scan for them because they think it causes a miscarriage. Many patients are afraid because of rumors like this so when they come to meet us we try to explain to them it is not true. Sometimes we feel tired of explaining this to them, but because we are thinking about Cambodian people if we don’t do who will? So, the explanations should start from us and that is why we try to explain to them every time. If they have the knowledge they will change their mind and we hope that when they do, they can take care of their health and their babies well.