Trinidad's Daily Nurse's Advice

25/06/2024

Knowing Your Consultant's Name

Most of us attend clinics at the hospital and somtimes we leave and forget to ask certain things and return Sometimes patients call over the phone to get information or to speak to the doctor. As well as, patients attend clinics and at 8am the nurses come out to get the patients for their clinic and some are not aware of who their consultants are and end up confused or attending the wrong clinics.

For those who call or come in to query, the problem is, they may say they are under doctor --------, or they would like to speak to doctor ------- who may happen to be an intern, or house officer and they may not know the consultant's name. The thing is, interns, house officers and sometimes registras rotate and go under different consultants. So for you last visit the doctor who saw you was, let's say under nephrology, but when you come back that doctor may not be there, as well as they could be there in a clinic close by under Haematology or some other unit. There may be different nurses working and if you don't know the consultant's name they would not know which clinic you are in. If you mention the consultant's name, the nurses can get any doctor under that consultant, there to see you. Saves energy and time.

25/06/2024

The Importance Of Recieving Proper Information.

Sometimes patients bring in referral for clinics and it is kept by the department with instructions that they would call to give the date. When that particular department or clinic calls, especially if you know you dropped off more than one referral in different areas you should:

* Get the name of the person calling

* Get the name of the department that the person is calling from

* Please write any instructions and dates down

* And please walk with the relevant documents on mentioned date.

What happens is that the information is not written down, the person comes to the institutions but doesn't know the department or clinic they are to attend and they did not take the name of the person that calls. So they walk the whole hospital asking around, confuses everyone and eventually when they find where they are to go, they are late and have a longer waiting period, or are on the wrong date and have no documents. Having a little notepad and documenting is quiet convenient.

18/06/2023

Morning. Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there and to the dads that raised kids that weren't there own and for the men who stood in the place of dads that died or left. Continue the good job of being fathers. It's not an easy journey but the rewards are there in the end when you see your good work reflected in your children. For the dads who have not yet taken up that role, it is not too late. Don't take your kids for granted and neglect them, they will remember. It is better you do your best with the little you have for them, and struggle if thats how things are until they are grown. You'll be happy you did.

16/05/2023

Be The Change

We can actually see society falling apart because the most important insitution (the family) has failed. We have a younger work force now with no values, curtesy, politeness, phone etiquette, no respect for people's property, no work ethics and it's really sad. All that we are experiencing now, the increases in crime, and all the other failures we are seeing is because the family had not done it's job.

How I arrived to mention this is because a friend told me about an experience she had, where she was on a call. Now her colleague overheard the call and afterwards proceeds to tell her that the experience she had with a particular business place was not right and she has friends there and she's going to ask, or tell them. So she of course told her, that she was not given a message to go back and repeat and that she had overheard a conversation. This is the society we live in, where people's rights are being invaded.

People are creating conflict, where there should not be. Gossiping, labeling, stigmatizing, taking advantage of others and these things lead to conflict and sometimes violence and this societal deterioration we are seeing.

We all make mistakes, but try everytime to do better and be better. If you obviously know something would cause conflict, don't do it, don't repeat it. Be fair, and honest and genuine. It doesn't take anything out of you to be nice, and smile and to be helpful. Try to be the change. What people don't understand is that we can change society from what it is by causing a chain reaction. You do something nice and helpful, and that person would pass it along. Make an effort, we can do it.

17/04/2023

Morning. I came across this and I thought it would be great to have in mind to start the week with. It was not written by me. I'll probably leave the link for it. Have faith and confidence in yourself, hold on when it gets rough, don't give up, and be thankful and share in times when everything is going well and you are prospering.

01/04/2023

How Not To Forget To Take Your Medication

Some of us are unfortunately on medication for chronic diseases and some of us have to be on it for the rest of our lives.

We are human and we do forget things, even to take our medication. Some intentionally do not take it. Do you know if you don't take your medication or forget to, it doesn't stop the disease? If a long period of time passes without getting the medication that was prescribed to prevent certain things, like, kidney disease, strokes, heart attacks etc, that these things will happen.

Do you know we are not invincible, that we can die, even though we feel well at that point in time?

Medications are given for a reason and some chronic diseases cannot be controlled by anything else and they cannot be cured.

Try these suggestions:

♡ Put your phone to alarm the time you are
suppose to take your medication everyday

♡ Place your medication where you can see it
everyday, not out of sight.

♡ Purchase a medication box, with different
labelled slots to place medication for each
day.

♡ Take your medication the same time
everyday

♡ If your medication can be taken with a meal,
take it with lunch or breakfast everyday

01/04/2023

Life

I saw something this week and it made me reflect on childhood with my mom. I had allergies and eczema to the point where my skin became the worse it had ever been. I could say I really suffered in that period. My mom I think was not really concerned, because she was okay with me being in pain, with my skin tearing and weeping, sour flies everything. I was allowed to go to school in that condition and be shunned and scorned. I felt ashamed. My hands due to the eczema and scratching became infected where there was pus and she never carried me to the doctor, made me pay with my infected hands in a store and the cashier was so shocked he jumped. Now to my week. I saw an aunt with her niece and the child looked well but she had something that if not taken care of could actually reach an irreversible stage and eventually lead to death. The Aunt, I'm not sure if she was concerned about it. They barely came clinic, when they did, they arrived the latest they could and the child was not getting her medication.

Besides the life we own sometimes we are given another to take care of and we take them for granted. We believe because they are children, they do not deserve certain things. That, it's not you, or it's not yours so there is no urgency, when they are sick and we allow them to suffer unnecessarily and experience things they didn’t have to. When they become adults, they may not feel valued. They may look back on it when they become aware of how easy it was to get treatment, and how certain things could have been avoided, and become bitter.

We as adults don't have the right to affect someone else's life because they are are not at a point where they can speak or decide for themselves. If they were, they'd choose to be happy, healthy, and have good experiences. Please value these little ones. They do not have to be pretty, handsome, or without disabilities, or yours to have certain rights and certain things.

10/01/2023

The Importance Of Giving Your Legal Name

A person can be known by many names, especially to family members, but when registering at a hospital, it is important that one uses one's legal name.

We understand that one's name can differ from ID and the files in instances of divorce. Besides this and any other justifiable reason please update your information at the hospitals, health centers or clinics, with the present legal name.

We've had patients registering in different clinics in the hospital using different names or registering one name and using another. This creates discrepancies and later on when one wants copies of files and documents for court, it creates delays and the inability to source the files.

So please, register under one's legal name.

17/12/2022

Every Person Matters

Everyone is important and has value. It doesn't matter whether they are missing limbs, on a spectrum, has a psychiatric problem, mentally delayed, or has a genetic mutation. These things don't matter. The individual does. We have to learn acceptance of differences. They are not less of a person, they have the same emotions we do, infact there is no difference. It may be hard for you to understand how they can be how they are, what happened, how they carry out their daily living that way but it's really not for us to try and figure out. Just learn to accept people how they are and see them and treat them as normal even if to you, they do not appear to be.

17/12/2022

Every Life Matters

I don't know how to talk about this so it's understood and people don't get offended. A male and a female have the ability to create another life. We have control of it and also how the life of the person we create is impacted. Even though we have this control we need to understand that, this life if given a choice would have wanted to be born, complete, normal, healthy e.t.c.

In certain instances we have no control of certain things that happen during conception of this other person. We can't control mutations, and things passed on genetically if we are not aware we carry certain genes.

But I think we have control to a certain extent, our sexual practices and who we go with and how we can protect ourselves from being infected. We can also protect ourselves during pregnancy, to what we expose ourselves to.

Sexually Transmitted Diseases can affect a developing baby in the womb. It can cause a whole list of congenital, deformities and delays.

I think it's not just about it being your body and because it is yours you can do whatever you want with it and that a fetus, baby has no say in what goes on during conception and the initial stages. They do you know. They have a right to have a normal life and to be protected, even during conception, in utero development and after birth. Don't take this away from them.

30/10/2022

27/07/2022

Fibroids
A large percentage of women have fibroids. What are fibroids you ask? Well fibroids are benign tumors that grow in or on the walls of the uterus. When they are incised, they are really made up of muscle and connective tissue from the uterine wall. No, they are not cancerous and having them does not increase the chance of developing uterine cancer. They can be affected by hormones such as estrogen because they have estrogen receptors that cause them to grow when stimulated. Therefore they shrink after menopause due to the decrease in estrogen.

Fibroids can range in size from apple seed size or pea size to that of a grapefruit.

Causes
● Not really known
● May be genetic
● More common in sedentary women
● More common in women who consume
alot of animal and dairy
● Women with changes in growth factors

Symptoms
● Heavy periods
● Painful periods
● Bleeding between periods
● Lower back pain or leg pain
● Pelvic pressure or pain
● Frequent urination
● Fertility problems
● Anemia

Treatment For Those Without Symptoms
● Not all fibroids need treatment
● Medical or surgical management is used if
the woman develops symptoms
● If no symptoms nothing is done
● If minor discomfort, NSAIDS are given
● If the woman is close to menopause, doctors
would wait until the fibroid has regressed

Treatment For Those With Symptoms
● Blood supply may be cut off to the fibroid
which is called embolization
● If the woman has finished having kids a
hysterectomy may be suggested
● Certain medications may be given to
decrease estrogen production which would
shrink the fibroids and then the myomectomy
Is done