Day in the life: Sister Beza
February 03, 2025
Sister Beza has been a nurse at Hamlin Fistula Ethiopia for nineteen years. Let’s take a look at what her typical day as a Head of Theatre Nurse looks like.
The surgery schedule
I check the board for scheduled surgeries for the day. The name of the patient and the procedure, the surgeon and the scrub nurse is written there. If there is any emergency surgery I update the schedule. Today there are two fistula surgeries plus two other surgeries.
Welcoming visitors
When guests of patients pass through, I introduce myself and my job title. I tell them what’s going on inside the operating theatre. I write their name in this book.
On-the-job training
Often, junior fistula surgeons and trainee Hamlin Midwives visit with me. They want to see everything and I check their names so they can see the performance of the surgery.
Fistula repair surgery
We have several operating theatres. We perform fistula surgery, prolapse surgery and caesarean sections. There is a newborn corner in caesarean theatre. Staff include surgeons, nurses, nurses aides, gynaecologists, midwives, anaesthetists.
Taking a break
In this room we enjoy the coffee and the tea and we talk to each other here. I love that smell [of coffee]. This is a social room. Sometimes we get rest.
Remembering Catherine
There is a special room because of Dr. Hamlin’s chair. I love it so much. I love to sit in her chair. Everything is the same. I worked with her in the operation theatre for six years. Dr. Hamlin, she used these words: My darling, honey and silly. I love these three words. I loved her.
Catherine Hamlin Fistula Foundation acknowledges the Traditional Owners and Elders past, present and emerging throughout Australia and the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation, the Traditional Owners of the land and waterways on which our Australian office is situated. We acknowledge the many ethnic groups in Ethiopia and their ancestral and cultural connection to the land where our work is undertaken.