People in the hospital were in a rush. Patients want to go home in time to celebrate new year in the comfort of their abodes. I got to discharge 3 patients but I admitted 2.
The old man needs blood transfusion and being my patient, I need to start a peripheral line on him. I was nervous I asked my senior to accompany me for moral support. I used gauge 20 needle that is suitable for blood transfusion. I found a vein easily and inserted the catheter. I had a back flow but as I advance the catheter, the vein bulged. I had to pull it out. I was looking for another vein when the cardio fellow came in. She volunteered to start the line to which I obliged. It is not because I would not want to do it on my own, it;s just I want to get it over with to attend to other patients in order for me punch out early.
I feel exhausted, I feel hungry. My fraternity brother who celebrated his birthday yesterday came to the hospital to bring me some food but as usual, I was not able to take even five for a quick bite.
I did pretty well today. I like my preceptor. He is patient. He waited for another 2 hours after our shift for me to finish my tasks. I was actually shooing him off as some girl was waiting for him but he declined.
I am too tired but I am starved. I guess I cannot wait for the new year to strike.

Being on probationary, it means I do not health or life insurance coverage yet. I do not even have the Pag-ibig, Philhealth or GSIS contributions yet. So I was thinking of making my voluntary contribution. I also wanted to get insurance just in case, God forbid, bad thing happened to me. At this point in time, I have to be practical and I and in search for free insurance quotes

During my preemployment physical exam, the doctor asked if I were smoking and he was surprised to hear from me that I used to smoked. I told him that I quit in 2006 and I did not further discuss the reason behind it. I was not a chain smoker but I experienced smoking at least 10 sticks in a day. I only tried light cigarettes and I did not even try cigars much more the Acid cigars

Expectedly, she’s again my preceptor this time in the PM shift. I had another bedside nurse with me. The 10 patients were equally divided between the two bedside nurses. Thank heavens!
I am getting the hang of managing level 2 patients. I got to do the admission notes for another patient with ease but still I know that I will be unable to finish the task on time.
The atmosphere is so much lighter compared to the previous day when we were just 2 in the ward. Maybe it’s because the charge nurse was conscious that the other bedside nurse would feel her bitterness.
I still got her angst once in a while though but not as intense as the other day. I got to do the morning care for my patient without her help and she was even surprised to see that I was done with it when she entered the patient’s room.
I was done charting before 6:00am. I only lacked the input and output data for one of the patients plus some last doses of medications due at 6:00am inlcuding the capillary blood glucose monitoring and the osterized feeding.
At 7:00 am, I was prepping the medications that I will endorse to the incoming shift. Another bitter female nurse told me to stop what I am doing and proceed with the endorsement. To which I obliged. Expectedly, I do not have the medications to endorse so the other bedside nurse commented that I should be well prepared. Yeah right, I do not know whom to follow.
For the record, I finished my task at 8:00 am.

It’s my second week as a full time staff nurse under the orientation status. This means I am still under the supervision of a senior staff as I do my job. It’s Christmas and although our religion does not observe this kind of festivity, I am still expecting a lighter atmosphere since most of the people celebrate Christmas.
Unfortunately, I am structured to have the most bitter person in the ward as my preceptor.
She was my charge nurse. We only had 5 patients, she took only one. The only one that is low maintenance and was voluntarily admitted just to have the room reserved for his husband who was in the ICU. Another patient was admitted making my total census of patient assigment 5.
While I was doing my patient care, she was there in the station lounging around. Barking what I should do next and constantly reminding me that we should go home early.
I can really feel that pressure. I also wanted to go home early but I am just new in this arena. I wanted to ask help from her but the pride in me is pulsating which is hard to ignore. I want to prove to her that I can finish my tasks without her help and I know she’s not willing to lend a hand. I had to them on my own. The pressure was building up on me that I started to break down in tears.
I took 5 in the bathroom. I looked in the mirror and I spoke to myself. If you cannot finish your task on time, you cannot go home on time. This means that she also has to stay behind. I smiled. We’re even.
I was done at past nine in the evening. She had a date and she’s late.

Holiday rush is very visible everywhere. I need to allot an hour for me to travel to work and get on time. I have to pass the elliptical road where the bottle neck of traffic is. I also have to time in early to review the patient’s chart because it is hard to squeeze in all the required patient care for six persons in 12 hours. I wish I could keep up.

It is the season of giving which means the season of gift wrapping. While it is the thought that counts it is also nice to received gifts in boxes or wrappers that are well thought of. In our of our exchange gifts, I received a present that is beautifully wrapped in a box. The wrapping was made in sense that I needed a box cutter just to open it up.

It has been almost two months since we started our apprenticeship program. We have been on the pit for approximately six weeks. As I was preparing to leave the hospital, I got my first ever phone call in the ward. It was from the Nursing Service Office. The secretary told me that I was included in the next batch of orientees on Monday. Being an orientee means that you are already a probationary employee. Since we had our 2 weeks orientation, we will only have one week orientation next week and it includes accomplishing the requirements and medical exam.
While it is everyone’s dream to be hired, I am uncertain of being an orientee. For two reasons: one, I know that I still have proteinuria (as I can see that I have frothy urine); second, being on probation means that you have to sign up for a 2-year contract. Although, I can see a promising career at the Philippine Heart Center, I am quite apprehensive on being locked up for the long. My California State license will expire next year and I do not know if I will be flying anytime. If that happens, there will be a breach of contract and I will not be getting any certificates from PHC, worse I could not avail of their reinstatement program should I decide to come back as staff nurse.
These are the reasons why unlike my co-apprentice, I do not feel bad when there were orientees who came in straight without passing thru the apprenticeship stage. I always tell my batchmates that our time will come. The other day, we were chatting that rumor has it that a new batch of orientees will be introduced this Monday and since none of us has received a notice from the NSO, I quickly brushed off their frustrations by telling them that maybe they were the ones whose panel interview came before ours. And now that most of us are on the list of the next orientees, I also feel bad for those who were not included and will remain apprentices until the next opportunity opens.

Eat when you can, where you can. This has become our practice in the hospital because we are always on call when on duty. We do not know when our patients would need us or worse, when they would call a code. With this type of routine, we always have to observe proper hygiene that includes frequent handwashing before and after handling a patient. This is to prevent contaminating others and of course ourselves. Good thing there are enough faucets with good water supply that allows us to perform hand hygiene.