Monkey Management

I have had several very exciting trips through various market stalls looking for just the right souvenir. I was surprised to find that it is nearly impossible to find a small wood carving of just one monkey. I kept thinking "but monkeys are so neat, and I've seen so many in person. Why wouldn't there be monkey souvenirs?" As I asked this question, the answer I got was "you have a lot of pigeons in the U.S. Do you buy souvenirs of pigeons?" I realized that I had been thinking with my own cultural perspective - that monkeys are exotic and amusing, whereas people living directly with monkeys may not see why a visitor would be interested.

I found myself falling into the same trap when talking with various healthcare providers. Although I have worked closely with many physicians from India, I do not believe that I have worked directly with any nurses or other ancillary medical staff trained in India. I walked through AIIMS and thought about how different the care model was to my own experience. I was expecting to find that nurses at Indian facilities were performing an exotic job that bore little resemblance to my own work. What I found from talking to the nurse at the mobile bus clinic and several other staff at AIIMS was that the nurses are trained to standards that allow them to practice in many countries around the world. Their education is of high enough quality that they can practice in many different settings. As well, the community health nurse described her job role in virtually the same way I would expect a community health nurse in the U.S. to. The major difference is in the community demographics. Ultimately, there are differences between nurses in the U.S. and India, but the amount of common ground was surprising and inspiring.

I came to India expecting to see major differences in the roles of nurses between the two countries. What I found was a striking amount of common ground. Just like with the monkeys, I was looking at the experience as exotic, when really there is a lot of normality to the situation.