The importance of emergency drills in any institution won’t be appreciated unless a true emergency happens.
Our hospital is now conducting an emergency drill: Code Black. Amazing how everything is truly coordinated with the inspectors around or I must say well rehearsed. There’s no better way to battle disaster or any crisis but to prepared.
(Sana matapos na tong drill, mainit sa labas).
Kudos to all the team!
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Manila, August 20, 2011 – The day that July 2011 Phil. Nursing Licensure Exams results were released. Just like how I felt when I found out I, too passed, it was truly overwhelmingly a joyous moment. My sister-in-law passed and she then became the third RN among her siblings. About 37,500 made it to be an RN among 78,000 hopefuls. It was a tough battle and I salute all those who passed – welcome to the reality!(post-nursing reality).
Probably after their oath-taking only they will get the feel of what I meant to by post-nursing reality. The dilemma begins when they actually face the fact that there are just too many RNs in our country (saturated mostly in Metro Manila) and there are just so few jobs available.
Half a decade ago (December 2006 NLE passer), I too faced these challenges. I just did the “go with the flow” way during that time. I joined the bandwagon and got into the BPO industry. I worked my ass off on graveyard shifts for over a year. Sure I did learn a lot in the corporate world. But shortly after that call center stint, I decided to pursue my chosen profession – Nursing.
At my time, hospitals have started to create a practice that changed or should I say made the lives of new nures a little bit more difficult – the idea of volunteerism. I would consider myself lucky because the 6-month “OJT” program I joined was free of charge. The staff were warm and even offered free meals for almost all OJTs from all the wards. It was truly a fruitful 6 months of volunteer work. I honestly gained a lot of experience that helped me now that I am a staff nurse too.
I was never against in doing volunteer work. To be a volunteer nurse is a noble act. And just the word implies, it is voluntary. It should never be monetized or be an income generating racket by the hospitals. Volunteer nurses should be a dignified work and must be well appreciated both by the hospitals and by the patients.
Recently I had a patient who had a PICC line and another IV line on the other arm. There were 3 different IV fluids hooked on the patient plus the additional blood transfusion the Physician ordered.
Administering medication between I&O’s and vital signs is not a problem. A midst the standards in doing these procedures a thought came in my mind. How are we left behind when it comes to technology and healthcare fusion in Government hospitals?
IV Infusion at SLMC QC
When one of my friends recently had an appendectomy done in one of the premiered hospitals in the country, I noticed that they use IV infusion pumps. Yep! Embarrassing as it may sound, I took a picture of it and showed to other nurses in the ward where I work. This machine attached on the IV stand would have saved not just time and effort but would also have provided accurate infusion of TPN, IV fluids and BTs we needed to transfuse.
TPN: Kabiven 1920 ml
Aside from doing manual regulation of the TPN and the main IV fluid (which was done hourly as ordered), everything was computed manually. And that’s how Pinoy nurses are best at! Making all things as accurate as possible and giving the best nursing care with or without the technology the world offers now.
Speaking of technology and healthcare, I have seen this video from Baxter website : The Sigma Spectrum Infusion System. Oh yeah. It doesn’t sound like we can afford that but the video simply shows that this IV infusion pump transmits directly to the hospitals’s information data base and reflects directly to the patient’s chart electronically. Not only that it records the time and regulation of the IV fluids, it is also being used to receive the actual Doctor’s order for the time of infusion and kind of IV fluid and also to verify corrects patient’s name. It also mentioned that this infusion system provides 5 Rights in giving medication (Right Patient, Right Drug, Right Dose, Right Route and Right Time).
Nevertheless, this is not to put to ridicule how we really are left behind when it comes technology and healthcare but to also aim high, that someday we will not just be skilled nurses but also competitive in using world-class technology.
Wound care and dressing
My journey as a bedside care nurse has begun. Every day wound care and dressing will be just a routine for me. And yes, believe it or not, I wear gloves and strictly follow aseptic technique.
This photo shows one of my patients with healing wound on their foot and are s/p debridement.
By today, this open wound is getting to be almost closed as more tissue formation occur (that’s of course with the help of good nursing care, ehem.)
We go through different kinds of transition in our lives. Just like everyone goes through developmental stages, it’s stepping up from one level to another.
I am now facing a transition. From the corporate world to the noble profession of health care. From the private industry to government service. This is a much awaited move for me I guess. Since the Nursing profession became such a fad for almost a decade ago, I was one of those who jumped in to the bandwagon of the nursing career. 3 years post graduation, I was able to work in a new “field” of healthcare in the Philippines – it is now called Telehealth Medicine. The company was managed as a BPO/KPO industry in short – a call center-like environment. My time in this field has finally come to its end. I am moving on.
I must say, it was well worth 2 years experience. I have learned so much. This new opportunity to be a Nurse in a government hospital is rather a challenge. We all know that finding a job as a Nurse with pay is not as easy as applying in the call center industry. Thus, I am so much grateful for this opportunity.
I have once read Maria Ressa’s speech she ga
ve for a med rep event and she said towards the end of her speech: “Once you find the courage to say no and take responsibility for your actions, you reverse the tipping point for evil and begin to tilt the balance the other way
Fight the group that will drag you down. Find the group that will raise you up.” This is a real challenge for me. Corruption is not only found in the government but also in private industries. Upholding and going back to your core and keeping it with your morals is a responsibility.
I must say that this transition is the continuity of courage to do what is right. And a realm where I will have to draw the line in the sand as Maria Ressa have said and I should never cross it.
As I literally age where they say is the start of quarter life crisis (25 yo), it really does not have a huge physiologic in nature at all – hormones of course may be a contributory but nevertheless it’s from late teen-age years to early thirties.
How can we ever say that one is experiencing this crisis? It came from the same analogy of middle life crisis. Same group of people are expected to have at least one or more of the same situational crisis.
Here’s the list of what I think are possible things that could happen to most of my age group.
1. Career – getting a college degree does not solve most of the Filipino families’ problems nowadays. Yes, there has been courses/degrees that became such a fad and we know that just few years back that almost every family would have one of its members studying in the nursing school be it as the first or as the second course. And with that, the dilemma for having a career in the chosen profession or pursuing a different field is imminent because there are more
nurses available compared to the jobs available around the nation. Is this a crisis? Yes, I think so it is. Not just for those who took up Nursing but also for those who have the urge getting that the return of investment should start rolling the moment we receive that diploma. We all know that getting a college degree is not just a way ordinary path for everyone but also an investment for some. Parents would work their bones out just to get their kids enter college. And as a young and idealistic person as we are, we would not want our parents to be just disappointed. So, the trend now is to jump in to a career where it is rather easy to land a job than pursue and strive for a chosen profession.
Call center is an industry that have helped most of the below middle to middle class families that has one member that graduated from college for the last 5 to 6 years. True, that it is a decent career to start – in the corporate worlds of BPO’s . This industry is where we can find lots of young professionals that are either underemployed or over-qualified.
Illegal recruitment is still happening in this day and age. With the power of google and social networking, young professionals have become vulnerable with some schemes of heartless people in doing such business. For the past 4 years, there has been numerous reports that more newly grads are getting victimized - these are through job-searching sites that are oftentimes frequented by the young people (please click here for more details).
The struggle is not monetary – it is the career itself. IT is the sense of fulfilling the urge of your profession. It’s like an itch that you just cant pass. It’s a situation where you would feel that you have no choice and just because you are just there. Another situation could be is that even when you have started to become successful and have started your way up then the problem would be is to how to keep up. There are no theories or literature background under your belt so the higher the position you have the more there should be theories you need to learn or should have had prior to taking bigger accountability to the world you were not prepared to be in.
There are few people who I know personally that are very lucky to get a job in a field of their choice, of their background and of their profession. These are the few that are now working as a Nurse in one of big government hospitals in Quezon City. The professional nursing skills are definitely has been honed tremendously. Now the struggle is not just occupational security but rather financial security. They may say that they love what they are doing, but there are also circumstances that may bring them into some crossroads that would make them choose between the job as a pension-centered and occupational security or just noble act without the financial satisfaction compared to those that are in the corporate world.
2. Relationship – this is the age where hormones are raging high and pressure from peers and society are just way up to the limits. The intra and inter-personal relationship plays on the higher priority for most of these age group. The struggle is also both extremes – it’s either you are able to pull one-off or just unable to break through.
Sometimes the more you try harder to find that one special someone, the more it is difficult for you to actually end up with a partner at all. The choice of exerting too much effort in enjoying the liberation and independence can sometimes miss one’s chance in trying to be self-aware that it is the perfect timing to have a mature and healthy romantic and sexual relationship. It will then integrate in the frame of mind that finding a partner is a struggle and it will then be taken as something that is you are either desperate of or something that is just needed to be accepted that there is nothing else to do about it.
There are of course people who were bound to miss some steps and jump to the level of maturity of standing up and facing some good decisions. This for some may define their existence or perhaps is the chance to be able to feel that was never felt on the past.
The struggle focuses more on frustrations in maintaining friends. This is the stage where separation from friends are often due to everyone has graduated and will be starting to pursue individual careers, others are starting to have their own family and others may just struggle keeping up with others leaving. The frustration of having no friends and failure to establish a good romantic relationship will magnetize the a big dilemma of involuntary celibacy which can directly affect self-esteem of the person at least for the most. It may not be a problem of course for the most of us are brought up that culture tells us that it is the norm.
3. The desire to have a family - this is also the period where it is expected that having one’s own family is a perfect timing. Career may have started to take off at these times and for some it may be a struggle to actually give in to the desire of having a family. There are lots of constraints that can aggravate the struggle – occupational and financial security, familial approval and the fear of giving up liberation.
These are just some of maybe not that commonly discussed but I believe that are really happening to people of my age. And truly I can say that this is both a financial and socio-emotional dilemma. There are big decisions that needs to be made most especially for career plans. As they have said – choose a job that you love and you will never have to work a single day. Is it wise to follow and pursue a career of the degree you have earned? Or just take any opportunity that may come along the way?
I have been away in blogging for more than a month now primarily because of important things I had to deal. Maybe the demise of Bar also gave me the feeling of “in denial”. I started this blog almost just when he started his ordeal against AML and writing up again on this account for me also means that I have successfully made it to the last stage – ACCEPTANCE.
I know Bar has made it to the stage of acceptance and that he is an angel watching over us.
Shortly after Bar’s passing, the fact of facing the dreaded NCLEX examination was the thing I had to battle. It was not easy at all. I had about barely 2 months to prepare. I knew I was not. I had to go for a month of leave of absence from work just so I can concentrate on purely reviewing and conditioning my mind for it.
Life is rolling over again and it is indeed moving forward. And now I am back. Back to blog.
