Workshops and reports

Not a lot to report this week I'm afraid, mostly dull workshop stuff...


Since I checked in last week, I attended a two day workshop on workload calculation (really exciting stuff) which produced some predictably interesting results - the variation between departments in the hospital is huge with some producing results that suggest they are understaffed by a factor of about 50% while the results from others hint that they only need about half of the staff they currently have. Of course, any calculation such as this has many limitations in the context of a hospital given the need to be prepared for whatever emergency occurs at any time of the day or night. However, it is interesting and very encouraging to see the very participative process adopted in processes such as this in the hospital - largely, I suspect, at the instigation of the director.

Another two days were spent on the followup session to the complaints workshop that I wrote about some time ago. This was another long two days but I am encouraged by the fact that the task of keeping up with what was going on was far less arduous than the first workshop so my language skills must be improving ! Again, this was a particpative process with ward managers and department heads agreeing on solutions to the most frequent complaints (the one at the top of the list was dirty toilets...)

Also on the work front, we received the disappointing news that our application for a small grant from Australia (AUS$5000 - about €3000) was unsuccessful. Apparently, we were the next in line - they probably say that to everyone ! The grant was going to be used to help fund a Health Care Worker (HCW) Safety training programme which is one element of one of my tasks, helping to set up an Infection Control Committee.
Speaking of tasks, last week was the time for my first quarterly report. VSO has a well developed monitoring & evaluation (monev) system which monitors the effectiveness of placements and involves the completion of a report by the volunteer (in partnership with the employer) every quarter and a formal review meeting approximately every six months or so. The task of completing the report is not particularly onerous and provides a very useful formal opportunity to sit down with your employer and discuss what is working well, what is not working and what should be changed. In many cases (including mine) this leads to the original placement objectives being revised, although not significantly in my case. While this may seem strange after coming all this way, you have to remember that my placement description was written in August 2008, I saw it and accepted it in September but I didn't arrive in Maumere until April 2009 so many things have changed since the original document was written.

Outside work, no more parties to report, just another short road trip along the coast to the west of Maumere..