My day starts at 8 a.m 4 shifts a week and goes until 6p.m We used to have two doctors on staff but ever since COVID-19 we went to 1 doctor a day. We start our morning with appointments and surgery begins in the afternoon. The doctor prints out a treatment sheet with all of the drugs and instructions needed for whatever procedure we have for the day. I then draw up the drugs and have someone check them before continuing. We have a check system where whenever someone draws up any medication or vaccine we have it checked by another because everyone makes mistakes.
Once the drugs are pulled up I begin to set up for a spay, neuter, dental, mass removal or whatever we have on the schedule. I also prepare items to place an IV catheter, endotracheal tubes, blood pressure cuff, complete monitoring system and IV fluids.
The patient will be given an intramuscular injection or drugs to sedate so we can then place the IV catheter. We sedate first to provide minimal stress to the patient. From there on out we continue with the induction process and with then with the procedure.
We have been doing a lot of dental procedures lately so I take dental radio graphs of the patients mouth and then scale and polish them while the doctor reviews the x rays. The doctor will then determine if he/she needs to make any extractions, if not then we wake the patient up! If no extractions a dental procedure can take about 30 minutes to an hour.
Once our surgeries are done we then clean up and my day continues. We see afternoon appointments and nurse visits. Nurse visits are things that can be seen without a doctor. I also take full body radio graphs of patients when needed by the doctor or give injections prescribed by the doctor. And that is how my day goes! Of course it can change if we have emergencies but those are unpredictable and always come as a surprise.
Thank you to all of my followers!
xox Melissa