Barking dogs, or for that matter any dog, do bite.
I was done with two weeks of internship, and so were my batchmates and thus we were now entiteld to share our experiences with others who would be posted after us in our departments. Therefore prior to being posted in the ARV Clinic (Anti Rabies Vaccination Clinic), we had gotten some intimation that it is going to be a busy posting, but nothing could have possibly prepared me for the manic week to follow.
There are several elements in an ARV Clinic. It begins with patients history taking, which is different for new and follow-up cases, followed by examination of wound, then making their ARV schedule, then deciding the category of the wound, calculating the dose of immunoglobulins if it is category III,then explaining everything to the patients, taking their consent, then entering everything in the register, and then again everything online. It is only after all of this that the vaccine is actually given to the patient. In contrast to the IPC where PGs and Nurses handle nearly everything, here in the ARV, we interns were quite at the helm.
There were four of us posted there, so alternately two people would handle all the registration work, and other two would give the vaccinations. Both the works were equally demanding, but the registration job was way more tedious. Strangely enough, patients would nearly always come in herds, meaning that there would either be absolute frenzy of handling ten patients at one time, or none at all.
If you have ever played the video game in childhood where you own a burger or sandwich shop and you have to make customised orders for each customers, several at once – that is exactly what ARV felt like. The first day there we had a lot to learn and grasp, the second day I learnt how to give an I.D injection, since the I.D regimen is followed in our college. Now I hadn’t really tried my hand at any injection in the I.P.C, hence when the ARV was thrust right in my hand and I was told to administer, I was pretty nervous. But the PGs then instructed us on how to do it, and before I knew it I had given my first ever injection. Even though my hand trembled like crazy, my first attempt was a satisfactory one. The trepidation was now gone, and I then gave many more injections with reasonable ease. Needless to say, a picture of that went on my Instagram story. Drawing the doses, then injecting the precise amount is a job requiring finesse and it doesn’t come without practice. But over the course of seven days, I am happy with the practice I have gotten.
The weather remained hazy and overcast with unseasonal rains all week, so on the one odd day when it was clear and sunny, we had a huge flurry of patients. After nearly four hours of continuously standing and giving injections, I got a taste of what the heavier postings might be like. But I’m not complaining, because for the most part the work was actually thrilling.
The best part about internship is actually the freedom from posting-related studies. Way back in second year when in PSM postings, we had come to the ARV once or twice, but all we had to do that time was listen to a lecture there, memorize the regimens, sit there blankly for a while before being shooed away with some homework reading. In third year we would come there to take the case of ARV patients, but even then we would be pathetically clueless about how to actually do it. The other day I saw some juniors trying to take a patient’s history for their PSM postend exam, and I smiled smugly to myself for not having to do it anymore.
So this was the most lively week of internship so far, with just the right amount of work to keep us engaged, but never to the point of fatigue. It was an eye opener though, to just how unpredictable animals can be, and I daresay you will never look at dogs without some amount of fear after this posting. Not to be unfair to just dogs though, even cats, monkeys, rabbits, rats, humans all do bite. I did realise after this posting that animal bite prevention and awareness still remains an overlooked public health issue.