I was on the PM shift. I came in almost an hour before my shift. I want to have enough time to browse through my patients’ charts. As I looked at the board for my patient assignment, I was not surprised to see that I have 2 level 2 patients out of the 4 assigned to me while the other bedside nurse has only 1 level one patient out of four. I was appalled though that I will be receiving the first admission should there be any. The division of labor is really not fair. Then again, my only consolation for playing the underdog for the next 6 months is that, the bedside and the charge nurse are not allowed to go home without me. A fair deal.
The outgoing bedside nurse get to endorse the concerned patients to me just before the grand endorsement happened. I asked her to slow down a bit as I list down the medications of each patient but she commented that I should come in early to do it. Bitching out aside, I asked her that the reason I came in early is for me to do that exactly but she asked me to make an early endorsement. She rested her case because I was not gonna take it sitting down.
In almost a month of being an orientee, I could say that this was the most smooth shift. We call it suave shift. At 4:30 a.m. I was done doing my final vitally signs, input and output monitoring and charting! I was only waiting for my 6:00 am osterized feeding and medications. This was my best shift ever! Until the admission group called in as there was a patient that will come in from another hospital. Aaargh, admission is the most toxic job for me as there are so many forms to fill out plus there is the task of doing the patient assessment. I am kinda obsessed with the assessment part as I do it thoroughly from head to foot including the patient’s medical background. This was the comment of my preceptor and I am guilty for that, if that is a sin. The patient came in at 5:30 a.m. and I hurriedly but thoroughly did the assessment. At 6:10 a.m. I was done with it, I hurriedly prepared my feeding and medications. At 7:00 a.m., I was done with all of it. I set aside the task of finishing the documentation for the patient who just arrived. I had to make the endorsement for my four other patients. At almost 8:00 am my other patient who will undergo coronary angiogram buzzed for help. She pooped and the daughter needs assistance for a diaper change. As soon as I finished changing her diapers, I went back to the endorsement table. The same patient buzzed again after ten minute. This time she wants to have her hair shampooed and she is level one patient. This means that even though is on complete bed rest, she does not have any contraptions and her Glasgow coma scale or GCS is 15. But in the private ward, you cannot say no to a patient’s request. Technically, she is no longer my patient but since the endorsement is still ongoing, she is still under my care. I went in to shampoo her and as I was patting her hair dry already she insisted on having her daughter to do it for her. My ears flapped in joy.
My preceptor handed me a time table giving me an idea what tasks should be done by when. I looked at him with my eyes speaking “seriously?”. He told me that it was just a suggestion and he does that to all the orientees that he handles. He noticed that I was quiet finishing the newly admitted patient’s chart and I was not laughing at his jokes. He began filling out some forms for me while the other bedside nurse was chitchatting with some nurses from the other ward. It was nearly 9:00 a.m. I was done doing all the charts and as I told them to go home already, they insisted on waiting for me.
Nurses are like diamonds. Undergoing trainings and real life experiences are like series of tests in fire to make them as polished and as priceless as they could ever be. I am hoping though that I could withstand the tests.

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.

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.

My friend’s shout out message in Facebook says she needs sweater, scarf and electric blanket this Christmas. It turned out that it is constantly raining in SG and it is a bit chilly there. I do not know but I have a feeling that this trip will not turn out fine. I just hope that this negative feeling will rub off of me. This is supposed to be an unplanned vacation.

Late last night, I had my dinner. It was a very heavy dinner composed of soup, rice and adobong pusit finishing it off with ice cream and Kahlua cake for dessert.
I felt so bloated that it took me until 3:00 am to doze off and the annoying part is that I get to wake up every now and then feeling some grinding in my stomach with surges of acid at the epigastric area. At around :00 am, I tried to pop in Nexium to soothe down the rising acid level but after two hours , the ill feeling did not subside. With feeling of empty stomach, I still decided to pop in my immunosuppressant and the after two hours the upset stomach has escalated. It is now giving me heart burn then I decided to induce vomiting. I felt relief but I know that I still have so much to throw up. True enough, without doing anything, my stomach contents came gushing out of my mouth. As I drain my gut, I feel the cold sensation all over my body. I was sweating hard. I felt like a crap the whole day and I was not able to get out of bed until this evening. My back was hurting a bit. Fearing of getting hypoglycaemic (I actually felt weak), I sipped on orange juice and nibbled some sweets. I did not take anything solid for the fear of throwing up again.
I do not think it was food poisoning because everyone in the house got the sample of the food I took in last night. It must be an upset stomach.
I am about to have my first meal today.

My sister’s mother-in-law plans to go to the US for a vacation and to see her mother-in-law who has just undergone bypass surgery.
I volunteered to call the US Embassy for the interview appointment. I got a text from my sister thanking me for walking the extra mile helping out. It was nothing seriously, the least I could d for them since they let me stay at their place. Just when I thought that I’d be of help, toll free access on my cell phone does not seem to work.
How could I even get photo holiday cards if I can’t make it work?

The three-month training at the Lung Center of the Philippines has come to an end. We have had our case presentation and it went well, or so I thought.
I have asked around what are their plans after the training and mostly answered, they’ll be taking a break.
Our course in the ward might be short but it is long enough to drain our energy and interest.
We all feel that we paid to be enslaved. We are doing the bedside duties of the nurses and yes, even the nursing aid’s while they chill or sleep at night.
Although we have learned so many things, mostly on our own, we feel that we were pushed to the limit putting our endurance and patience to the test.
The irony is indeed palpable. Hospitals in the country lack nurses, yet they to do not hire instead they turn this problem into an entrepreneurship and ventured on draining poor nurse’s pocket. We understand that hiring additional workforce is out of budget but why collect fees for the so-called “training”?. The staff are fully aware of the big help the trainees give when they are around.
Instead of helping the nurses to land a job or at least get a decent hospital experience to land a job abroad, they chose to be vultures and rip their flesh off.
The government wants nurses to render service first here in the country before leaving for abroad but how can we do that if we are deprived of the opportunity?
We even opt to be volunteers just to gain hospital experience but most of the hospitals are too darn wise to make it as a profitable aspect of service. A total disservice indeed.
So now that my training is over, should I dish another serious amount to get into another training program? My answer would be a bitter yes but not at this very moment. I need to recharge financially and physically.
Sad to say, we are licensed to be exploited.

I am trying to ward off the idea that I am jinx because in the past two weeks, My partner, Mark and I have joined the code team in resusciating two patients. This evening, we again have had a patient who coded. He was just tranferred from the ICU. This time though, we were not able to be in the code team as those who brought him from the ICU were the ones who performed the CPR.
Actually, I did not knot that there was a code that was called since we’ve got a handful of patients that evening.
It was three in a row. I hope it will not be a sweep this week.

… of waiting, I finally got a call from an important person.  I did not personally get the call, our helper did. The person left a message that we need to meet up somewhere in Quezon City today at 1:30 p.m.  Good thing I was free the whole day because I could not say no to that person. I have been waiting for our meet up for almost two years.

I was at the meeting place an hour before the agreed time and I was able to talk with the person at past 5: oo p.m. already.   What is more frustrating is the talk did not last for 15 minutes and we called the meeting off.

I really wanted to storm off the building and just forgot about the whole thing but my sister texted me that waiting a few more hours is nothing compared to the two years of longing  for  that call.

So when will I hear from that person again? I jokingly texted my sister, maybe after two years again.