My Nursing Elective In Vietnam (Part 1)

An International Elective Placement can be a great opportunity to develop your skills and confidence as a Student Nurse. Laura takes us through what she hopes to do on her placement and the potential benefits.

Hi, guys. My name's Laura, and I'm a Student Nurse.

I'm here today to share with you guys that I've been given an exciting opportunity. I'm lucky that my university offers students the opportunity to complete an international elective placement between years two and three of our studies, and I will be complete in a full week placement in Vietnam.

And I will be sharing this opportunity with you guys in three instalments, a before, during, and after video.

What Is An International Elective Placement?

So, an international elective placement is where you complete a voluntary placement abroad to better understand the education and healthcare in an international context.

I can't pass off any of my clinical skills whilst I'm abroad. However, the hours that I work will count towards the 2,300-hour NMC requirement, so I will come home with about 150 placement hours.

The company running the elective offer multiple destinations. However, I have chosen Hue, Vietnam. I will be working in July, so it'll be hot and humid, which will be something I'm not very used to. So, I will probably struggle, but it's part of the fun. I've decided to go to Vietnam as I am very interested in the culture there, and I look forward to eating lots of Vietnamese food, seeing the scenery, seeing the wildlife, getting to understand what life is like there, seeing ancient palaces, learning about Buddhism, visiting temples. I find that all very exciting, so for me, that is my perfect location.

What I’m Hoping To Do On Placement

During my placement, I'm hoping to complete two two-week rotations. I'd like to complete two weeks in A&E because this will teach me how to provide critical care and highlight the differences between critical care in the UK and Vietnam.

I think it'll be a stark reminder that we are so lucky to have our treatments free of charge and access the treatments we have so quickly here at home.

And then I would like to spend the final half of my placements on a paediatric ward. And this is because I think as training to be an Adult Nurse, it is quite hard to gain valuable experience with children unless you are lucky enough to complete a spoke placement or come across a child on one of your other placements.

I think using these two weeks to have dedicated time to working with children will give me valuable experience and this will broaden my practice and give me skills that I can transfer when I come across a child in the future.

The Process Of Getting To Vietnam

The process of getting to Vietnam is a long one. First of all, I've had to go through my university and get permission to go. I've had to complete statements about why I want to go, and what I hope to learn. There was a concern that I might not cope very well out there, so we've had to put an action plan in place. But fingers crossed, everything will run smoothly.

After my university has given the go ahead, the easiest part is messaging the company and booking your placement with them. And that's the easiest part. You just say a place, a date and give them some money. Easy.

However, after that, you then have a long list of things that need to be ticked off. For example, booking flights, getting medical insurance, but the medical insurance must have needle stick injury cover. So that adds a complication. There is also travel insurance, travel vaccine, COVID stuff, visas, buying equipment, buying scrubs, and organizing time off work.

I'm quite lucky that my work have been very flexible and they're actually happy for me to go and have pushed me to go. So, because I've needed five weeks off work and the norm is three weeks maximum annual leave, I've had to then go through work separately and get permission to have such an extended period of time off.

This experience will give me a more holistic view of healthcare, give me a talking point on my CV, and mean I can deal with challenging conditions and diseases and then bring that knowledge home.

Benefits Of Going On Placement

Obviously, I want to go because it's going to benefit my studies, but it's also going to benefit me personally. And, on a professional note, I get to experience healthcare services that are entirely different from those that we are used to.

For example, the services abroad will probably experience obstacles such as funding, rurality, overcrowding, staff shortages, cleanliness, different levels of standards of care. And I think this will impact my perspective on the NHS and the care that we can provide here in the UK.

And I don't have the technology there to use. So, I'll have to learn how to do things in a more manual way, which is a skill that I can transfer if I'm ever in a situation that lacks facilities or technology.

I'm also hoping that I can learn a little bit more about traditional aspects of health and traditional medicines. I think that would be quite interesting for me. Something a bit different. Keep me keen.

I think the language barrier is going to pose a significant obstacle to communication, and I'm going to have to develop my nonverbal communication skills such as signing and body language.

And I think this skill is so vital and so transferable coming forward, especially as I will more than likely end up working with a non-verbal patient, someone with aphasia, someone who's foreign and requires a translator. Having those non-verbal communication skills are going to come in so helpful in my future practice.

I'm also hoping to learn some Vietnamese so I can at least say hello and introduce myself. But I can't promise how well that's going to go, I'm not the best of languages.

Nursing In A Different Environment

But I'm also curious to learn about caring for patients in an environment that isn't as clean, hasn't got as much bed space, hasn't got as many facilities, and I think that might lead to some issues regarding privacy and respect. It might become hard to maintain patient's dignities at time, and I think this will be a helpful thing to learn and to manage.

I'm also interested that because healthcare is not free in Vietnam, I think the views towards it will be very different. And I want to learn how people consider the financial burden of healthcare when discussing treatment and how that impacts the treatment that they can receive and how financial inequalities might significantly impact the healthcare provided. Because this is something we don't have at home, and I think it will be quite eye-opening.

I'm also curious to learn about tropical diseases. In England we have very little experience with things like dengue fever and malaria, so I'm hoping that if I come across that, then if I was to come across it back at home, I can then use that knowledge and those skills in the future.

How A Placement Could Develop You

Personally, I'm so happy to go. I've always wanted to travel. I've always wanted to go abroad with uni. This month away is going to allow me to tackle so many obstacles and barriers in regard to my mental health and my challenges to learning. I think I'm going to have to face my anxiety. I'm going to have to gain confidence in new places of unfamiliar people, and this is an element of life and work that I struggle with.

I think improving on this is going to help me inside and outside of my nursing practice so much. I'm terrified, but the only way it's going to get better is to go out there and do it and not be able to run home.

So, I'm going to do it, but I can also practice these skills beforehand. So, on my placement that I'm about to start before I go away, I'm going to practice trying to be more confident, being more resilient so that when I do get abroad, it's not such a big leap.

I'm going to have to get creative with my communication and I'm going to have to learn to be clearer when communicating my feelings or my needs, which is something that, again, is going to benefit me massively in my nursing and my private life, which as I said, is an excellent opportunity for personal and professional development.

And, again, adapting to a change of routine, unfamiliar foods, these are things that are quite barriers for me. So, testing these barriers is really going to broaden my tolerance and broadening my tolerance will only open more doors for me.

A Final Note

On a final note, all these experiences are going to make me more confident and resourceful. This experience will give me a more holistic view of healthcare, give me a talking point on my CV, and mean I can deal with challenging conditions and diseases and then bring that knowledge home to using the UK.

This and the improvement in my professional work and confidence will help me in the future. And I think talking about the personal and professional development to future employers will be a good talking point.

I'm looking forward to part two when I get there, or if I make it there in one piece.

Thank you.