IMU Bachelor of Nursing (Hons) Semester 6 students from cohort NU118 have just completed their community health clinical posting at Klinik Kesihatan Pedas, Rembau, Negeri Sembilan for five weeks. Here is what they have to say about their recent learning experiences:
On 21 March 2022, my colleague and I were posted at Klinik Kesihatan Pedas as part of our clinical placement for the clinical practice module on Community Health Nursing. Despite being posted to a new and unfamiliar place in a small town in Negeri Sembilan, we were really looking forward to the new experiences and challenges that awaited us there. We were kept busy most of the days as there was a continuous flow of patients attending their follow-up appointments.
Patients at the community clinic we attended to were very welcoming and friendly to us which kept us motivated every day. We were given lots of opportunities to attend home visits where we conducted health checks for antenatal and postnatal mothers. Other than attending to antenatal, postnatal, and paediatric patients, we were also involved in various health promotion activities such as providing patient teaching on family planning. We learned how to provide the necessary health education to patients and interviewed them to understand their medical condition better.
We also had a chance to perform vaccination for both children and mothers, obtain blood samples from antenatal and postnatal mothers to monitor their general health and progress of their pregnancy.
We were also able to participate in school health visit for their scheduled health check-up. It was really an eye-opener for us on the importance of providing continuous healthcare for our school children and adolescents as they are in the major age group in our community.
We assisted with height, weight, and Body Mass Index (BMI) measurement as part of health screening for obesity or underweight problems among school children. In addition, we also performed visual acuity test using Snellen chart, colour-blindness test using Ishihara chart, vaccination, and screening for scoliosis among school children.
Collection of patient data were done manually, so it gave a sense of authenticity and allowed us to have an in-depth understanding of how a health clinic is run.
Overall, this clinical posting has allowed us to have plenty of hands-on experience; it was a very eventful experience as we managed to do a lot of nursing procedures. It was a pleasant clinical posting. A special thanks to the staff nurses there, all the patients/school children and of course, our respected Clinical Instructor, who was extremely helpful and taught us well throughout the entire clinical posting. It was a fun and memorable clinical posting which really trained us to be a better nurse for the community!
Written By Ngu Kah Fui & Rachel Netto A/P Joseph Gerald Netto (Bachelor of Nursing (Hons), Year 3 Semester 6)
Reviewed by Chow Suh Hing & Dr Lim Swee Geok
