Nurses play a pivotal role at WE-ACTx. While the doctors are in charge of starting
patients on medication and overseeing day-to-day issues that arise, nurses are
each assigned a particular set of patients that they will see 20-40 of each
day, depending on how many are scheduled and the number of nurses in the
office. During each visit, nurses
evaluate patients for ART adherence by asking them how they are taking their
medication, if they have missed any doses and, if so, why that was. In addition, they perform a nutritional
assessment of children under 15 years of age, document patient encounters in
paper charts (Fr: Dossier) and address additional concerns related or unrelated
to ART. They are the ones that patients
first talk to about their physical and psychosocial needs and determine if the
patient needs to see a counselor, talk to the doctor or seek any other lab
tests.
Thank goodness for amazing nurses!
