Hi, my name is Glenn and I work on a boat as a doctor (cue T-pain). The boat is an ambulanceboat, and covers the islands outside of Stavanger in Norway (see img below). I thought i could share what happens on one shift with you guys. The shifts starts 3pm and ends 8am the next day. This shift was on wednesday 20th of july. I will go through what kind of patients I see on the islands, what kind of gear I have, and also at the same time have an AMA. I am used to getting questions from friends and family about their health, so here is your chance steemit.
How do you feel and what brings you to my office?
The floating office
The area
This is the area me and the boat covers.
4 Districts. Kvitsøy, Rennesøy, Hjelmeland and Finnøy. 1264 square km land (+ a a lot of sea). 11260 people. There is a lot more in the summer. Almost all Norwegians have a cabin, and germans are crazy about fishing here. As a Norwegian you either have a cabin by the sea, or in the mountains. Or both.
View from Mastravarden. The tallest hill on one of the islands (Mosterøy, my home). 154meters.
The crew
I have a boat crew that consists of a captain, a motorman, and a paramedic. The nurses who takes my calls are in the city.
The crew has enormous respect for me. I am like a god to them. Juggling life and death.
How it all works
I am a general practioner that works with emergency medicine in the field. The patient calls either 113 (like 911) or 116117 (not life and death). Then the nurse calls me on my radio, and I decide what to do. Can I drive to the patient, do I need the boat, can it wait until tomorrow, can they come to my office or do I have to come to their house/nursing home. If the patient is almost dying, i can call a helicopter to come and get them. And that happened on this shift actually. The helicopter came within 10 minutes. Incredibly fast!
Gear up
As i am a gadget freak I drag around a lot of stuff. In that way I can help the patient right where they are. And avoid unnecessary admitions to the hospital.
From the left: emergency bag and other, notebook, thermometer and pulseox, radio, iZettle for payments (cant live only on steem for now), stethoscope (off course with bluetooth for wireless transfer of heartsounds (has never been used by anyone evereverever), emergencymedication (adrenalin etc), toys for children if they behave)
The boat
From left: cabinvisit, workbench, cruising in the night
The boat is off course superfast. 44 knots. Can take 12 passengers. Built in carbon (carbonsandwich is the name of the material). Year 2002. 19,4 meters long. Stationed at Finnøy. An island famous for its tomatoes. They have their own tomatofestival.
The patients
I see everything from strepthroat to heartattacks. At one random shift I saw dislocated shoulder, cuts that needs sutures, splinter on the eye, dizziness, trouble peeing, appendicites, suicidal patient, backpain, child with rash and fever, headache, and constipation. Not all in one patient off course. If someone dies, I have to come and declare that they are in fact dead. That is very simple. You check for pulse, listen to the heart, check for breathing, and poke the eye. If there is no reaction, the person is most likely dead.
The shift
This shift was perticular busy. We went around to a lot of the islands, some of them without a place to dock. In those cases we go as close as we can, and I jump ashore with all my stuff, and a paramedic right behind me. We worked nonstop until eleven o´clock. I went home and ate a slice of cake before we got called out to the emergency that eventually required a helicopter. After that it was back on the water again visiting people in their homes, on the docks and in the cabins.
Some more landscape and cows. We have a lot of them around here. And sheep. The pictures were taken around 6 am.
At 6am we were done, and i could go back to the office to write my reports. Then i got 6 hours of sleep until my next shift started. Not on the boat, but as a hillbillydoctor. But thats another story.
Feel free to ask me anything. I am at work now, but its quiet today, and I would be happy to answer anything.