St luke day 2
Today had to wake up at 6.30 to make it to st lukes hospital. Its the second day of my attachment and its getting more interesting by the day. Yesterday which was the first day, it was kinda ok ok only, had lecture then was at the ward until around 4. Learnt how to take blood pressure, temperature, pulse and respiration rate. I didnt know all the graph drawings that we learnt in secondary school will come into use when recording all those readings. The readings are actually drawn as a graph to see the fluxuations. Blood pressure is drawn in red and temp and pulse in blue.
Today was much more exciting. In the morning the patients were showered. I saw them do a trolley shower, that means the patient is placed in a trolley and they shower him when hes lying down. They use this hand gloves to shower and scrub the patient. Its really complicated cause the patient cant really move himself so imagine two tiny nurses flipping him over to the side.
I also wittnessed a sponging of a patient. This patient has like a contagious wound disease, so when u go near him, you have to wear gloves and an apron. one of his leg was amputated and his hair was kinda like falling out. He was on diapers so when the nurses opened his diaper, its not a pretty sight with "discharge" all around the diaper. Later they peeled open a dressing to reveal a wound. This is the worse wound i have ever seen. Its located somewhere near the pelvis area and the flesh is like blasted open. I actually saw his spinal cord bone! as it was near his anus, some "discharge" also went into this wound and as the wound had a contagious disease, the nurse could only squeeze the sponge "water" into the wound to clean it. After that they dried him up and clothed him.
around 9 am, i was brought to the out patients' clinic. Its where patients of the hospital, or the public can visit the doctor for followups, x-ray, dental and wound care. I got to sit next to a speech therapist! He said he did his degree in malaysia and came to singapore to work. He specialises in swollowing disorders and i noticed he was talking to the patient about anything under the weather. He told me later that this is one form of checking for any slurring or stuttering. He also made the patient swollow water to check if there is any obstuctions in the trachea.
After looking at what a speech therapist does, i went over to sit in for two consulations by a doctor. He basically follows up with the patient and provides appointments and medication for the patient. He got some missing information off the net when he could not find the hardcopy, i didnt know our medical records were all recorded online!
After that i went for lunch before heading back to the ward to measure BP, temp, pulse and respiration. I was also taught how to use the manual measuring BP instrument! i always wondered how the mercury filling up would tell u the bp until i discovered the secret today!
It was definitely a fun and exciting day. Tomorrow i might be attached to a house nurse, woo exciting!
it was at; 2:38 AM
