5:45–6:30am. Wakeup time is dictated by my fourteen-month-old. With my son wrapped inside my dressing gown, we will wander to look at the sunrise or the clouds or rain, listen to the birds, let the dog do his thing and then hustle back inside to the warmth.
8am. Today I am on stand-by for Ka Ora, which is a rural afterhours telehealth service. This means I am at home for the Sunday morning, waiting to be contacted if they need me to jump online and see patients in virtual consults either by phone or video. I also do one morning a week at a local rural GP clinic, and I do some online paperwork to help at a different local practice.
I enjoy working rurally for the type of people that I get to help. I appreciate where people are coming from and try to make them feel like we get it. Last week, I had an older gentleman tell me the cause of his injury involved a ram running back while he was loading it on a trailer – and he tackled it. Unless you’ve had a ram run back at you in a race, this is an injury you might not understand.
10am. When I get a text from Ka Ora asking if I can be online in fifteen minutes, I call my mum/babysitter, who arrives in just a few minutes. Then I can log in and start seeing patients. I can take my time to talk with patients. Because everything is virtual, it takes more explanation to ensure understanding – you can’t physically show them or do it for them. When there is something urgent, our main goal is to get them to a big urban hospital in a stable condition. What has always drawn me towards rural health is the variety and autonomy – you get to go the extra steps with patients because there isn’t a building humming with people surrounding you. There’s a lot of figuring it out together.
1pm. After attending a handover meeting, which includes a debrief if there has been anything tricky, I log off. When I am not working, we are surrounded by an amazing coastline and there are plenty of beaches and bays we sometimes visit. I also hold the lease on my family’s old fishing-boat slip at Cosy Nook so sometimes will go check on that, too. Other days, when my son is asleep, I use the time to do jobs like clean gutters or any spraying outside, or to have any of my own online appointments or meetings – I use telehealth, too.
3pm. Once my son is awake, we head to my parents’ to get their side-by-side, which has a car seat installed in it. After shifting two mobs of sheep and giving the dog a run, we check a trapline I have helped my parents set up to try to control pests and improve native birdlife.
7pm. Once my son is fed and asleep, I organise my own dinner. I prefer summer evenings in the south where it isn’t dark until very late – I can do all sorts of outside jobs and gardening until bedtime at about 9:30pm.
Ka Ora Telecare services are available to anyone living or visiting rural Aotearoa who needs to see a healthcare professional afterhours. To find out more, head to kaora.co.nz.
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