What do I do?

It's a good question really, and one I get asked fairly regularly on ship: what do I do?

Many would assume that I am a nurse; I live in scrubs, and frequently can be seen sporting my dragon scrub hat (necessary for venturing down the operating room corridor).  However, thankfully for the patients I am not a nurse!  I work as a biomedical technician.  But what does that mean?  Most people have never even heard of this position, let alone know what the job involves. 

Well a biomedical technician (also known as a biomedical engineer or clinical engineer) works with medical equipment.  Engineers are problem solvers, they are technical, and practical, and to some extent they like to take things apart...although not all are so quick to put them back together!  I am an engineer, and as such there is a lot of problem solving in my work.

Myself and Tony, the other biomedical technician on the ship, work in behind the scenes to keep all the medical equipment running smoothly.  We look after all sorts of equipment, from your basic temperature probes, to your patient monitoring systems (which monitor blood pressure and pulse), up to the anaesthetic machines, the CT scanner, X-ray system and the machine known as the OPG (which actually stands for Orthopantomogram - it takes a panoramic dental x-ray of the upper and lower jaw).  Not only do we look after the ward and OR equipment and the imaging systems, we also look after the laboratory (on ship), the dental clinic and the eye teams who work off ship.

Our work is very varied.  We set up the new equipment as it arrives, catalogue it and distribute it.  We perform routine maintenance and checks of the equipment to keep it in good running order, things like changing the water filters for the sterilisers.  We respond to difficulties people are having with using the equipment and we fix equipment when it breaks.  We even provide some training to guide people in how to use the equipment.

When we have problems with our equipment we review the literature we have about the equipment to find the fault and try to fix it.  Sometimes we don't have much information so we get in and do some testing and look at the equipment to try to find out what the fault is.  Sometimes we have to contact the manufacturer or their support centre to help us.

All in all my days are very varied.  Sometimes I am climbing in the small space beside the CT scanner getting information to allow us to fix the lasers, other times I am unpacking syringe pumps or emergency suction units and putting them into our system.  Other days I am conference calling with a support centre in Israel, or making power cords safe again after the wires have been pulled out.  No day is ever the same, but life would be dull if it was!

(Picture to follow)