Working in an overseas country is a dream for every nurse in their lifetime. In the same way, Margaret (hereafter Maggi) too undergone several processes and got a job in the Sultanate of Oman. After successfully completing her probationary period that was the first night shift with the other 3 colleagues. Everything went well until 1.30 am. Two of her colleagues went to the medicine room to check the stock and do some routines there and one more went to another area to check a complaint from a patient.
She was all alone in the nursing station with some writing work, a man in his early’s of 40 came and placed a black color plastic bag, tied on the top, in front of my counter desk and asking about the admission procedure, meantime a call from casualty informs a snake bite patient need to get admission in the ward, the man standing before is his brother. After admitting the patient checking all the medications with the duty doctor’s confirmation.
Maggi asked the man “have u seen what type of snake it is that bite your brother”. He replied “of course sister we have seen and we beat it, u can see it’s in this bag. A Snake either it’s dead or alive we will feel nervous. Same time she felt some movement with the bag. Maggi looked into the casualty report and it is mentioned there as a MOLE VIPER type snake.
Mole viper is a ferocious less venom snake but can cause severe bite wounds. This man is very cool saying “sister u just open and see the snake only then you can give a better treatment”. Ahh! She was thrown off and sweating like anything even in the centralized cooling room, heartbeat pounding high and she is almost gone.
It will take time for the colleagues to come back understanding the situation she started convincing the man it’s okay brother already it is mentioned in the paper and he got the right treatment and within few hours he will be normal and out of pain. But he is not ready to convince him. he took the bag and asking her to open and see it.
Oh my god! What night this is please anybody come and saves me, Maggi is screaming inside. He is not ready to place the bag down and as time goes her panic makes her think an anaconda inside the bag and it is going to pierce the bag and come out.
Almost her emotions are going out of control she feels like crying, wants to scream loud but she can’t due to her situation. To add more heat to the situation since she is new to the country and knows very few words in Arabic. The man standing before her knows only Arabic. There started the tragedy because quarreling or yelling with patients or attenders will become an incident and it will be a black mark if it is reported to the Ward Nurse.
Maggi wants this man to understand her situation so she used her hand, legs, and eyes, face reactions everything to convince him after some time he stopped arguing and started staring at her. Seeing him standing quiet, Maggi asked him brother” I hope you now better understand the situation”. He shouted at her “sister, why are you dancing like this? Get into action. Maggi’s temper rising up.
Meantime one of the colleagues came back and he too joined with Maggi to convince this man. Since they both are expatriates this man is not ready to believe their words, the Situation was getting worse and they don’t know how to end this. It’s almost 4.30am and a lot more work to finish. Luckily one of their Area supervisor- the nurse was on her way to the office. Immediately Maggi called her and explained the situation through her they reached PRO for assistance and the problem ended by around 5.30am.
Anyway, this incident was recorded without much inquiry. The lesson learned is willing to work in other countries is good but learning the local language as early as possible is a must or else these problems can be unavoidable.
 too undergone several processes and got a job in the Sultanate of Oman.){kind=link}