I worked in the
ER/OPD again today with a different set of nurses. Everyone here is
super helpful and totally willing to help me learn the language.
Unsa imu pa
consulta? = Are you here for a consultation?
Naa na kay record
diri? = Do you have a record here?
Nalipong is dizzy.
Hilanat is fever. Cotas, dyspnia.
Both my parents
speak Bisaya (which is the dialect here) at home, but only to each
other or their Filipino friends, so it makes it a tiny bit easier to
pick up on what people are saying – but only a little.
Here's my chicken
scratch.
Today I helped
admit four or five patients for consultations. Its not all that hard,
but the language barrier makes it difficult. I can ask all the necessary
questions, but when they start telling me what's wrong I can only
pick up on about 25% of it. It can also be time consuming because the
hospital is in the process of digitizing all it's paperwork and it's
exceptionally difficult when brownouts are common (there were two in
the eight hours I was there for my shift). All the new admits are
still being recorded on paper because they have a ton of records to
back catalog. There's a walk in closet stacked from floor to ceiling
with boxes filled with every single person that's walked through the
door since the dawn of time. I kid, but it's a lot. It's all
organized, just daunting to look at. Here's how I admit patients
for consultations:
Do you have a
record here (Naa na kay record diri sir/maam)?
Yes, let me go find
it in the giant paper closet.
No, lets start one.
Name?
DOB?
Age?
Gender?
Health insurance?
Why are you
here/What's the problem?
I'll take your
vital signs, ok?
Then there's more
paperwork: filling out billing, filling out lab tests, filling out
prescription orders. I truly don't understand how the nurses here
have the time to do all the paperwork plus all the direct patient
care. It's an insane workload, plus I found out that they work 14
days and the get two, sometimes 3, days off. I've always had great
respect for nurses, but now more so than ever.
On the bright side
I got to prepare a couple IV bags, assisted in a catheter insertion
(not really something new), adjusted an IV drip, saw what happens
when diabetic patients neglect to come to the hospital when their foot
gets infected, and met a super cool guy from Australia who,
unfortunately, was suffering from pneumonia due to COPD and was
having trouble controlling his diabetes.
Anyways, I also got
to feed the chickens and washed my clothes using a couple buckets and
a spigot. Ricky also had an old mountain bike repaired for me so I'll
be able to bike wherever now. Hopefully I'll still get to learn how
to ride a motorcycle seeing as how that's the main mode of
transportation here.
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