Back in 2002 after the Bali Bombing Royal Darwin Hospital received burns victims from Bali and provided both medical and surgical care to those transferred to Royal Darwin Hospital (RDH). Since then a special bond was established between Northern Territory and Balinese perioperative nurses. Over the years, Northern Territory Perioperative Nurses Association Inc. (NTPNA) has been involved in financing a few Balinese perioperative nurses to travel to Darwin for education and upskilling tours in the RDH operating theatres. Although it was a great opportunity for the Balinese nurses to be able to visit Darwin see and learn how we work at the Royal Darwin Hospital, it proved to be a very expensive exercise to be give full financially support to the very few selected Balinese nurses. After some years, these educations tours were then put on hold as it was seen that these educations tours were not cost effective, with only 1 or 2 nurses being able to visit each time. However, the Northern Territory have always kept in touch with the Balinese perioperative nurses they are always in our thoughts.

This year it was suggested instead of bringing the Balinese nurses to us, why don’t we visit them instead? This way we will be able to reconnect and network with more Balinese nurses and be able to understand their work environment better to be able to provide more area appropriate education for them. With that idea in mind the NTPNA executives started to make arrangement to establish this tour. Organizing this Bali education tour was somewhat more challenging than any of the NTPNA executives could anticipated. However, with our goal to reconnect our bonds with the Balinese nurses in mind and some perseverance, the NTPNA executives managed to organize this Bali education tour with Sanglah Hospital Denpasar that was held on 28th July to 30th July 2017. 

Twelve perioperative nurses and a General surgeon from Royal Darwin Hospital participated in this tour. On arrival to Sanglah Hospital Denpasar, we were greeted warmly by the hospital’s Director of Nursing, CEO and perioperative nurses. They were very welcoming and excited to see us and during the official opening, the NTPNA president Ms. Dorcas Shih presented a copy of the 14th edition ACORN Standard to the Sanglah Hospital Operating Theatre Nurse Manager Mr Wayan Winarta.

Approximately 90 Balinese nurses attended the hospital education sessions over the 2 days, of their eagerness to learn from us were much more than any of us could ever have imagined. Thru the two days of hospital education, we shared both informative and interactive sessions with the local Balinese nurses. Dr Aravind Suppiah presentations on the management of traumatic haemorrhage in pre-hospital care, the role of rapid endovascular balloon occlusion of aorta (REBOA) in trauma and an update on colorectal cancer surgery; our own NTPNA  Treasurer Dana Petrilli shared a very informative presentation on infection control policies within the RDH operating theatre which sparked a lot of discussion within the group; our NT ACORN Director Lesley Stewart along with NTPNA president Dorcas Shih ran an interactive workshop in intraoperative counting. This allowed a number of Balinese nurses a chance to practice intraoperative counting in accordance with the ACORN standards. Wendy Rogers, our RDH Operating Theatre Clinical Nurse Manager, conducted a session on teamwork and communication in the perioperative environment which reminded us once again the importance of teamwork and good communication within the workplace.

At the end of the first day, we were fortunate enough to be able to have a tour throughout Sanglah Hospital Denpasar including the operating theatres. It was such an eye-opening experience for all of us from RDH, we can certainly see some similarities and the differences between their hospital and our own. There were some aspect of their practices we think we could implement in our workplace; it also gave us the opportunity to understand how their work environment influences their practices.
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In summary, the NTPNA Bali education tour was an enormous accomplishment. It turned out to be much larger and much more involved than any of the NTPNA executives had anticipated. However, it also reassures us that it is worth all the effort and time we put in to organize this, we will be looking into making this tour an annual event so more NTPNA members can come along and share their knowledge and experiences with our fellow Balinese nurses.

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