Going for annual health check up is a nightmare for me. Not because I am over worried that they will find something not required in my body. Or something they will not find that is very much required in my body. I am paranoid about the process of taking the blood sample for doing the necessary tests, that too on an empty stomach. I always wondered why those intelligent people have not developed an all inclusive test to detect every thing by a simple urine test. I don't have to depend on anybody to provide the sample then !
Since I need to go early in the morning for that fasting test, the nurses will invariably will be trainees. It's true here too, experienced people always take time to arrive. It all will start well. The beautiful young lady nurse will tap my left hand gently then switch to my right hand which I thoroughly enjoy. Then the problem starts. My veins are not visible, I have a feeling that my body is designed with a few thick blood vessels closer to my bones and not many thin ones on the outer surface. And I have this unique problem. I get anxious - not because it will pain me, not because I will lose a few mls of blood. It is just the very thought of complications involved makes me uncomfortable. The more time it takes to extract the blood, the more I will sweat. I may collapse also. Unfortunately, going late to the lab till the experienced nurse comes in is not an option for me. With an empty stomach I may collapse even much before seeing a nurse or a needle!
I thought of a few options. Asked the doc itself whether there are any medicines that can make my blood vessels more visible to less experienced people. Sadly there are none. I ate lots of reddish beetroots, plenty of them previos day, hoping that blood inside my veins will glow more to make them more visible, no luck. I stopped my two wheeler 1.5kms away from the lab and pushed that heavy vehicle till the lab to increase my blood cicrulation and thereby swelling those thin veins, but in vain !!! I closed my eyes and meditated, focussing only on a imaginary burning candle, while the nurse trying to poke the needle and commenting - "a few drops came out and stopped I don't know what is wrong I need to find another vein!! " . By that not only I stopped imaginng the burning candle, the burning in my stomach just increased and needed a few glasses of water to quench that fire and compensate for the amount of sweat that soaked my body. Sadly, adminstering a general anaesthasia would be an over kill to overcome this sensation that kills me.
Enough on my blood "purana". What I actually wanted to discuss was about the dedicated service these nurses do to human race. They do a great a job but many a times it is overlooked or ignored. I know recently a politician got into trouble for making a remark on "Mallu" nurses, though he made that remark much before he thought he would become a politician of that stature. It's a fact - most of the nurses know malayalam. I have an advantage of knowing malayalam when I go to any hospital, I can easily convey my problems to them more effectively.
May be because of the social acceptibilty, we do see more ladies taking up this profession compared to gents. One area male population can strive to get equality.
We need to thank the acute shortage of nursing staff in developed and rich countries. There is a huge demand for these people there and many of our youngsters pursue nursing career for that one reason. Though they have to go through a tough time in early stages of their career here. They can get a good break, salary and working conditions, once they go there. It's good thing for country like India, more people can earn in dollar terms and send some money back home. It gives more and more opportunites for youngsters to take up this profession.
But then, the expereince is getting drained out here, every time. I always find a novice nurse struggling to take blood sample from my "non-veiny" hand which brings me to the verge of a collapse. That calls for need for modern and technolgy based rapid training for these young people.
I found this initiative quite promising in the TOI news paper today.
"Narayan Health has roped in IIT Madras and and alumni of National Institute of Design Ahamedabad and Chandigarh Art College to build a simulator through which nurses can practise tasks of post-operative cardiac care. The project involves creating a mannequin that will react like a human being so that nurses can reduce errors while treating real patient". Excellent initiatve, even male nurses can practice.
I hope more people will come forward with many traning aids even at a lesser scale as well. I will be the first person to donate voluntarily if somebody plans to develop a kit that trains a novice nurse to locate a vein quickly keeping her/his mouth shut.
Though all these training intiatives are taking place, I still feel the nurse community needs much more recognition and appreciation than what they get now. There is every possibility that one of those "white angels" would have been the first one on the earth who had seen you and me, taken good care of us, when we were born - they definitey command more respect.
Since I need to go early in the morning for that fasting test, the nurses will invariably will be trainees. It's true here too, experienced people always take time to arrive. It all will start well. The beautiful young lady nurse will tap my left hand gently then switch to my right hand which I thoroughly enjoy. Then the problem starts. My veins are not visible, I have a feeling that my body is designed with a few thick blood vessels closer to my bones and not many thin ones on the outer surface. And I have this unique problem. I get anxious - not because it will pain me, not because I will lose a few mls of blood. It is just the very thought of complications involved makes me uncomfortable. The more time it takes to extract the blood, the more I will sweat. I may collapse also. Unfortunately, going late to the lab till the experienced nurse comes in is not an option for me. With an empty stomach I may collapse even much before seeing a nurse or a needle!
I thought of a few options. Asked the doc itself whether there are any medicines that can make my blood vessels more visible to less experienced people. Sadly there are none. I ate lots of reddish beetroots, plenty of them previos day, hoping that blood inside my veins will glow more to make them more visible, no luck. I stopped my two wheeler 1.5kms away from the lab and pushed that heavy vehicle till the lab to increase my blood cicrulation and thereby swelling those thin veins, but in vain !!! I closed my eyes and meditated, focussing only on a imaginary burning candle, while the nurse trying to poke the needle and commenting - "a few drops came out and stopped I don't know what is wrong I need to find another vein!! " . By that not only I stopped imaginng the burning candle, the burning in my stomach just increased and needed a few glasses of water to quench that fire and compensate for the amount of sweat that soaked my body. Sadly, adminstering a general anaesthasia would be an over kill to overcome this sensation that kills me.
Enough on my blood "purana". What I actually wanted to discuss was about the dedicated service these nurses do to human race. They do a great a job but many a times it is overlooked or ignored. I know recently a politician got into trouble for making a remark on "Mallu" nurses, though he made that remark much before he thought he would become a politician of that stature. It's a fact - most of the nurses know malayalam. I have an advantage of knowing malayalam when I go to any hospital, I can easily convey my problems to them more effectively.
May be because of the social acceptibilty, we do see more ladies taking up this profession compared to gents. One area male population can strive to get equality.
We need to thank the acute shortage of nursing staff in developed and rich countries. There is a huge demand for these people there and many of our youngsters pursue nursing career for that one reason. Though they have to go through a tough time in early stages of their career here. They can get a good break, salary and working conditions, once they go there. It's good thing for country like India, more people can earn in dollar terms and send some money back home. It gives more and more opportunites for youngsters to take up this profession.
But then, the expereince is getting drained out here, every time. I always find a novice nurse struggling to take blood sample from my "non-veiny" hand which brings me to the verge of a collapse. That calls for need for modern and technolgy based rapid training for these young people.
I found this initiative quite promising in the TOI news paper today.
"Narayan Health has roped in IIT Madras and and alumni of National Institute of Design Ahamedabad and Chandigarh Art College to build a simulator through which nurses can practise tasks of post-operative cardiac care. The project involves creating a mannequin that will react like a human being so that nurses can reduce errors while treating real patient". Excellent initiatve, even male nurses can practice.
I hope more people will come forward with many traning aids even at a lesser scale as well. I will be the first person to donate voluntarily if somebody plans to develop a kit that trains a novice nurse to locate a vein quickly keeping her/his mouth shut.
Though all these training intiatives are taking place, I still feel the nurse community needs much more recognition and appreciation than what they get now. There is every possibility that one of those "white angels" would have been the first one on the earth who had seen you and me, taken good care of us, when we were born - they definitey command more respect.
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