Today I was back at Southwest Wake Dialysis and White Oak Dialysis Center shadowing Shannon Clark, a nurse practitioner. I arrived and got to see an ambulance arrive (at the same time as I arrived) and they went in because a patient was having irregular fast heart rate due to him missing dialysis one day and then coming in today and they took off too much fluid so his heart was “freaking out”. The paramedics put him on a stretcher and he was very irritated because he wanted to leave, saying that he felt fine, since he had to take care of is 5 year old daughter. Mrs. Clark explained that there was no way they would let him get into a car. She also explained that sometimes patients have the same issue but they do not have the irregular heart rate so they are less of a concern.
I got to see Mrs. Clark make her regular rounds and check on patients. Mrs. Clark also explained that, since she learned that I was also shadowing a pediatrician, she likes adults because they know their body and are able to tell the nurse and doctors what is wrong with them, whereas with kids you have to guess sometimes.
I also learned that Mrs. Clark does not like to prescribe many medicines since they mess patients up sometimes. She also talked about nurses lying about things that the messed up and how big of a deal it is since it messes with all the patients.
I then got to visit the White Oak Dialysis center with Shannon and it was very new and nice. Afterwards, I left. Overall, today was very fun and I learned and got to see more things associated with dialysis and how the cardiovascular and nephrology is related.