Another week done! This week was spent in the hemodialysis unit. I hadn’t even seen a hemodialysis machine before this week so there were a lot of things to learn in this unit. Patients come in batches, up to 3 batches a day with up to around 15 patients at a time. After a new batch of patients comes in, the nurses and nurse aides get ready for their “transition.” The nurse aides clean the machine, hook all the tubing up, prime the tubing, and run some tests and heat sterilization on the machine. Then once the patient is seated and ready, the nurse assesses the fistula site, takes their BP, listens to their lungs, checks for edema, and then inserts the cannula and starts the dialysis. It takes about 4 hours. During those 4 hours, the nurses document, observe the patients and the machine, and then get ready for the next batch.
Outside of the hospital this week, we traveled to Parañaque to visit our friends who are currently doing the FNRI internship. It was so great to see familiar faces and share all about our experiences with each other! We saw the new Minions movie (which I think everyone should watch) did some shopping at Greenhills, ate delicious food, and returned to Bonifacio Global City to explore the nightlife. It was a fun-filled weekend with amazing people.
