Clinical Engineering TechnicianOkamotoBritish generalDepartment of Clinical Engineering, Blood Purification Center
My grandmother was a dialysis patient. When I told a nurse I knew about this, she told me about a medical professional specializing in medical equipment, called a "clinical engineer," who works with dialysis and other dialysis-related devices. I chose this job because I wanted to be able to help patients like my grandmother. Having a close relative as the catalyst definitely led me to learn more deeply about the lives of dialysis patients and the role of clinical engineers.
Currently, I work in the Blood Purification Center of the Clinical Engineering Department at Kitano Hospital, where I am mainly in charge of hemodialysis, which artificially replaces kidney function, and apheresis therapy, which removes disease-causing substances from the blood. In this job, I value not only the maintenance and operation of equipment and techniques such as inserting thick needles into blood vessels, but also, above all, the relationship with patients. I have known the patients for many years, and they are all very friendly and talk to me, but since I see them three times a week, I make an effort to come up with topics of conversation each day so that they don't get bored. Whenever I have something fun or make a discovery in my daily life, I can't help but think, "I should tell the patients about this." My story about going to Ado's live concert on the first day of the Osaka-Kansai Expo was a perfect topic of conversation, but other staff members told the patients, and they preemptively asked me, "So you went to the Expo?"
