Day 2 – Under Pressure

No, not literally, but I felt that the Queen song best describes a blood-pressure filled day. To me and you, getting our blood pressure taken during a routine healthcare visit is rarely preceded by tears. That statement is far from true when it comes to children under the age of eight. Though it took a lot of reassuring and sticker-bribing, the first few kids I examined were a piece of cake. Then came the kindergarteners. It was like a domino effect; one child walked into the room, saw the blood pressure cuffs, and began crying inconsolably. Seconds later, three more children in line were terrified of entering the room and begged to go home. Patient zero refused to be examined but the others eventually settled down enough for us to distract them with stickers and songs as their blood pressures were being taken. I quickly learned that saying “I’m going to give your arm a hug like this” is a much better calming phrase than “I’m going to squeeze your arm like this.” I also found that covering my stethoscope with colorful stickers makes it seem a lot less scary.

 

Night Camp seemed to run a bit more smoothly today compared to yesterday. I measured height, weight, and BMI. At first I felt awkward speaking to my patients because I was scared of saying the wrong words in Spanish. But with time I could easily say “I’m going to check your height, weight, and BMI.” The workers were excited to know what their weight was and whether or not that was healthy. I was happy to find that a majority of them were at a healthy body weight.

 

 

My station moved pretty quickly, so when I had finished with all of my patients I was able to float around and observe the nurse practitioners and the physical therapists at work. One thing I really love about this experience is how closely the different disciplines of medicines get to work together. As a nursing student I assess the patient and send him or her off to the nurse practitioners. The nurse practitioners make a diagnosis and send the patient to physical therapy or dental if either service is needed. The nurse practitioners also write a prescription for the patient which is filled by the pharmacy students. It’s really great to see what really goes into taking care of a patient. In the future, I hope to come back to Moultrie as an NP student.

Update: The gnat population dramatically decreases following a rain storm. It rained earlier in the day, so the gnats were not much of a problem tonight.