The first thing that I do on every shift is to send a text message to my workmates to say good morning, we all text each other as we go straight out to patients requiring diabetic care before going in to the office so it allows us to make sure that everyone has arrived safely and also let's others know that we are about to go into a lone working situation.
The second thing that I do on every shift is visit some of the patients on our caseload that have diabetes, sometimes this is to monitor blood glucose levels and give insulin injections and other times it is to provide support to someone who is managing the condition themselves.
The third thing that I do is head back to the office, we head back during the rush hour as we would get nowhere quickly anyway, the time allows us to handover, to read any urgent emails and to listen to any phone messages as well as to collect our work for the day and any equipment that we may need. I always try to restock my bags and car before going out each day as I never know what I may need.
The forth thing I do every day is patient visits, this can be a mixture of wound care, compression, catheter care, injections, drainage from surgical sites and many other things, every day is slightly different.
We always aim to get our scheduled visits completed before 1pm when we all return to the office for our lunch break, this allows us to do any call outs and care planning in the afternoon, however it doesn't always happen that way.
The fifth thing I do every shift is update our Trak system which is our online documentation, forward any issues on to the doctors, and follow up any patient visits by ordering stock, prescriptions and equipment that may be required and put in my expenses for my petrol. I usually write a list throughout the day of anything that I need to do and I try my very best to clear it by the end of the day where possible otherwise you end up building up a massive to do list which never ends.
A very short insight into my working day in the community.
Lynsay x
