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A Day In The Life Of A Dialysis Technician
Imagine coming to work every morning and inhaling the sharp, pricking smell of hospital disinfectant with your morning tea, ready a patient for painful dialysis knowing that these few days might even be his last… What must it be like to be a dialysis technician? We caught up Raju Chiman Ghotre, dialysis technician at Jehangir Hospital, Pune.

What do you feel when you walk into the dialysis unit every morning?
It depends on the situation and the duty that day. In the beginning I would look forward to it as a challenging task. It is only now, after so many years that I have realized that even if the monetary rewards are not so much, it is the service that is of great importance. I involve myself with patients – their lives and problems. I have lost a brother to kidney failure and know how it feels like to see a patient suffering from the same problem. I am happy doing what I do.

Patients generally view dialysis with apprehension. How do you help make them feel comfortable?
A lot of people who come here think that dialysis is an operation. They get apprehensive when they see the big machines, tubes of blood and fluid… There are a lot of misconceptions about dialysis which we try to clear. We encourage patients and family members to ask questions. Basically promote awareness. Sometime back we had also started a group called Friends of Kidney Transplant Patients, but it never really took off because of the ego hassles of doctors. But we are ever ready to help and do what we can to make patients feel comfortable.

Read more: Articles on Nephrology