Recently I was asked this and realized that I’ve probably never really clarified that. As you’ve obviously read, I am a nurse in a medical clinic. But what do I do?
1) We screen patients for the doctors to see—i.e. measuring their height, weight and vital signs, ask for the stori of their “sik, what medications they take, when their sik I kam ap (when there “sick came up”), etc.
2) Draw and run lab work—drawing blood, preparing the samples for testing, running the tests, preparing the samples for send-out to a lab in Australia if necessary, doing urinalyses, testing for various diseases, etc.
3) Give immunizations.
4) Irrigating ears for wax buildup.
5) Take x-rays and load them onto the computer, sometimes also preparing them for submission for visa applications.
6) Do ECG’s (electrocardiogram—measuring your heart rhythm).
7) Assist the doctors with whatever they may need help with (casting a broken bone, spinal taps, suturing, irrigation of a wound or dressing it, etc.) and joining them in assessment of the patients.
8) Preparing patient medications.
9) Answering questions via phone, email, radio and in person, and filling med for our missionaries and other patients.
10) Start IVs and IV fluids.
11) Responding to emergency situations with our doctors—providing whatever care and assistance ordered by the doctors and helping them to treat and transport patients as necessary.
12) Learning any skills the doctors want to teach—i.e. suturing, removing skin tags, freezing warts, diagnosing patients and prescribing medications, what to look for under the microscope for a variety of diagnoses, etc.
Any or all of this may be part of a typical day.