Tonight was meant to be the first night with the clinic all up and running and with me on the shop floor, so to speak. However, the date has been pushed back to Friday night now as we are still waiting on the oxygen, computer and phone to arrive. It seems things happen very slowly over here.
On the plus side the clinic is fully stocked and looking really good now. For those of you that are nurses and doctors you may be interested to know what is in the clinic. To be honest, I was shocked at just how much flash equipment I would have to play with. There is an adjustable medical couch, a vital signs monitor with SpO2 attached that can record a persons names & details and print data out. There are two sinks, beach, locked drawers and cupboards, desk, AED & Emergency Kit (with O2), portable drug/dressing trolley, huge high end fax, scanner, copier; and of course, the phone and computer when they arrive.
In the Northern Territory a lot of nurses have to work without a doctor so medications for each area are gazetted by the Medical Director for use in each particular area. It works similarly to standing orders in NZ but they don't require a doctor to chart them or sign them off once they are gazetted. In my area the medication that I have been gazetted for is:
Adrenaline 1mg/1ml Injection
Aspirin 300mg soluble tabs
Glycogen 1mg Injection
Glyceryl Trinitrate (GTN spray)
Lignocaine 1% Adren 1:100,000 Injection
Midazolam 5mg/1ml Injection (plastic amps for intranasal use)
Paracetamol 500mg Suppositories
Paracetamol 500mg tablets
Salbutamol 100mcg Inhaler
Thiamine 100mg.1ml Injection
The thing I found interesting is the medication is gazetted for use but is not charted as such. Therefore, it's up to the nurse to look up usage, dosing, contraindications or protocols for use. It really is not that different from Nurse Practitioners prescribing in NZ. The medical community here really can't be as precious about such things due to the lack of doctors and the remoteness. So most nurses working in any community health or remote settings here will all have a list of gazetted medications they are allowed to give.
Anyway, all going well we hopefully will be up and running by Friday night. In the meantime, I am enjoying a day blobbing out at home.
Great to hear how you're doing
ReplyDeleteI remember when my brother was aGP in the outback he carried a first aid kid which was basically a whole pharmacy and was able to stitch up beths foot when she cut it at the beach
Yes well Angela, I saw some of the high end equipment that the paramedics carry and was amazed. A lot of it is they don't pay for, it's on loan because when the manufacturers want to trial new equipment what better test than in the remote outback. I saw a manual compression machine which was the highlight. The chest compressions can be done by the machine without people tiring while they may have to drive 45mins to a hospital.
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