NEW PINOY R.N.

Visit the new PINOY R.N. site at pinoyregisterednurse.blogspot.com. All comments and messages in the tagboard have been transferred. Please subscribe to the new PINOY RN feeds.

Old readers..i hope I hear from you guys so soon

Tic Away With Me

     I wanna introduce my other blog, which I think is known to some of the people in i.ph. Well I think I have to let you know also just to expand my network for Tourette Syndrome as part of my advocacy plan. This is also a pioneering work so much of your support is needed. Please take time to read my articles for you guys to have an idea of what Tourette syndrome is because more and more Filipinos are being affected by it and the sad part is that we're not really aware. Educating ourselves about this disorder will help grow the understanding and eventually accepting this malady.

please visit the site at http://ticawaywithme.i.ph

please leave your comments so i will have an idea of what you think of this pioneering work.

I would also like to thank adam mordo of truly enlightening me and the whole PTSA (Philippine Tourette Syndrome Association) group about his enthusiasm of this worthy cause. I hope you guys can also share the same empathy.

"Take not the road less traveled"-Mikaela Fudolig, the 16 year old Summa Cumlaude from UP Diliman

"Take not the road less traveled"

One of the things that strike me as
being very “UP Diliman” is the way UPD
students can’t seem to stay on the
pavement. From every street corner
that bounds an unpaved piece of land,
one will espy a narrow trail that cuts
the corner, or leads from it. Every
lawn around the buildings sports at
least one of these paths, starting
from a point nearest to the IKOT stop
and ending at the nearest entry to the
building. The trails are beaten on the
grass by many pairs of feet wanting to
save a fraction of a meter of
traveling, no matter that doing so
will exact some cost to the shoes, or,
to the ubiquitous slippers, especially
when the trails are new.

What do these paths say about us, UP
students?

One could say that the UP student is
enamored with Mathematics and
Pythagoras, hence these triangles
formed by the pavement and the path.
Many among you would disagree.

Others could say that the UP student
is naturally countercultural. And the
refusal to use the pavement is just
one of the myriads of ways to show his
defiance of the order of things. This
time, many would agree.

Still, others will say that the UP
student is the model of today’s youth:
they want everything easier, faster,
now. The walkable paths appeal to them
because they get to their destination
faster, and presumably, with less
effort. Now that is only partly true,
and totally unfair.

These trails weren’t always walkable.
No doubt they started as patches of
grass, perhaps overgrown. Those who
first walked them must have soiled
their shoes, stubbed their toes, or
had insects biting their legs, all in
the immovable belief that the nearest
distance between two points is a
straight line. They might even have
seen snakes cross their paths. But the
soiled footwear, sore toes, and itchy
legs started to conquer the grass.
Other people, seeing the yet faint
trail, followed. And as more and more
walked the path, the grass gave in and
stopped growing altogether, making the
path more and more visible, more and
more walkable.

Funny or Humiliating???!!!

    Okay, it's 9:26 pm and I still can't forget the time when we had the celebration for the nursing week in the classy hospital I used to go to.I just can't help it, I tell you! The title really fits on this one!

    Well, I had my duty at 2-10 but my head nurse wanted me to attend the last day of the nursing week because it was going to be a day of nursing globalization at 6 am!!! You gotta be kidding me! I bet my head nurses knew the time that I always, almost always go home at dawn. And the night before the celebration wasn't an exception. Well if you're working in a hospital we do celebrate nursing weeks. Some people I guess might be thinking that it was only in schools that it gets to be celebrated but na-ah, also in hospitals. But if you're undeniably busy then you will never even notice. So I went. What can I do? Forced! But oh well, since it was the last day of the nursing week celebration and they had the finals for the nursing debate, what the heck. It would probably be fun though. Then again, I arrived at 6 am and the whole program started, I think, at 9 am. Darn it! So filipino time! So after thinking that I would probably be staying in the hospital from 6 am until , what? 2 am the next day. How beautiful was that?!! In fairness the whole program started with the debate which was kinda entertaining. The 2 teams were from the ICU and the 15th floor medical ward.

     By the way, in that classy hospital the 15th floor was the presidential suite. Every patient that was being confined at that floor was a very popular artist or a politician. And the nurses…well let's just say that they were too beautiful to be working as staff nurses. Well I guess you know my point.

    So the debate was pretty entertaining. One girl stood out and she was from UP, like me…ahem!!!  I don't want to put labels here hehehe but she was good. Anyway, they were talking about traditional documentation vs computerized documentation. Well take your sides ladies and gentlemen but the winner was the computerized documentation which was presented by the 15th floor medical ward. Told yah! that girl sure was pretty good. 

    Okay so everything went fine for that day actually until the talk from a cardiologist about nursing competitiveness and globalization. I bet yah that I didn't doze off when that doc had the talk. Everything he talked about were completely relevant and updated. And I liked the content…I liked those kinds of concepts. Nurses needed that. Well I just had to share with you some of the things that he said. He said that we, nurses ,should stand up and have conviction against doctors. Don't take me wrong when I say against. He mentioned about doctors having a certain kind of treatment that they demand from people. And coming from a doctor himself, that actually gave justice to that kind of behavior which was actually a common thing everywhere. So others may regard it as ego…for me it actually is. But you know what? That's not important. What matters is the conviction that he said we nurses should have. We have always been undermined and you guys know that. He reiterated that being a professional, we should also show them that we are not JUST NURSES. I think that had the most impact on me that day. And oh, I almost forgot. It's funny how his talk became very interactive. We were asked at the audience what's nursing competitiveness and globalization was for us. Others gave their share of thought. I was also called to provide my own point of view. But there was one nurse, and oh by the way, she was my senior nurse who I think have been there for years, was also asked about her point of view but her question was the simplest one…the doc asked her— "For you what is a nurse". Oh believe me before it got to that question the doc was already telling us about what a nurse was really all about. He presented being professional, meeting local and international standards, being aware of current issues, critical thinking, conviction, knowledge and skills, specializing, nursing demands and many others. You might be thinking what the girl answered— well, she held the mic, stood up and answered "Caring for the sick" What da…. Hahahaha!!!! My golly I bet you can't help but smile or even laugh. We're already in 2007 and still a nurse is the one who cares for the sick. That's all???? That was on my mind eversince. Funny? or humiliating??? Take your pick.

    You know what? This is not just about the answer that she gave, this is about the image of a Filipino nurse who will eventually be working in a foreign land and could probably be asked at one point in her life what a nurse really is for her…and all she can say is "caring for the sick". Uhhhgggg….believe me I don't want to even complicate [period]

The Workaholic Can Relax

       Sometimes you need to unwind despite the pressures in the hospital. One nice day at the movie house or even a night of booze can help you regain a bit of your social life. Well  there is something people don't know that behind the deep-thinker, mysterious kinda personality– I actually have a kick for japanese musicians. I happen to ran into animax lately and music station was on. It was an episode of japanese variety show. I had my top picks and they were ayumi hamasaki, otsuka ai and yanawaraba. Although they have very different genres, I found them to be the most appealing. I don't know much about them but watching them for a night sure was fun.

Ayumi is a rocker chic when I saw her perform "evolution"

    Yanawaraba is the best in terms of song tune. I think they provide the most melodious songs. They are actually folk singers.

Can anybody tell me where I can buy japanese cds?

     Some of my time are spent on tv series marathon. My husband just recently gave me a full season copy of One Tree Hill and The O.C. I have been glued to the TV eversince. Well Nathan and Lucas was some of my fantasies hehehe but I prefer the O.C's drama even better.

     Time spent are really very simple. Aside from blogging. These are just a few of the pleasures for me.

Some People Are Hemorrhoids— They’re Pain in the Ass!

       Let’s have a backtrack here, before I even get to work in a classy hospital in Ortigas, I was happy working in a tertiary hospital in Cubao. It was nothing compared to my hospital in Ortigas but I was happy until I bumped my head and came into a light bulb moment.

Let’s call my previous hospital — X, hehehe! Anyway it was beyond doubt that I had the best time meeting people in hospital X. They were the best, I mean after my job as a medical instructor, then came these people who were really really cool. We ate together during breaks, went out after duty hours in our clinical uniforms just to drink some booze. It was perfect combination of work and play. I mean, you need that once in a while, don’t you? I was so happy being with these people that I forgot how the hospital sucks! Everything in it sucks actually. There were people who went on duty for 24 hours, my God!!! Who in there sound mind could work for 24 hours????!!!!! Well you can probably have your eyes open and walk here and there for some errands but your mind by then is as empty as a bottle of coke with effervescence running out. And not to mention that by that time your PMS is at its highest level, pain tolerance is at 0, there’s a great decrease in your LOC (level of consciousness), and your GCS might be 7 or less, in other words, when you get to have the chance to just lay down on your back for just a few seconds, by golly you can go along way with somebody dragging your feet to the morgue and you might not even know it. Uhmmm and not to mention paying for your training for 3 or 4 months only to find out that you were not going to be a regular staff. (But that didn’t happen to me fortunately). In other words, you have given money to get dumped. Hehehe!!! User hospital X if you may want to call it. But no worries you’ll get a certificate anyway that you have waited for months that by the time you get it, you already have a new certificate on hand!  Oh and the worst of it all???? Malpractice tolerated! Let me just tell you a secret, I used to have a friend whom I get to talk to once in a while in that hospital until there were rumors of people who will be hired and those people who will end their contracts. That person actually made a great deal to spread these rumors and blew it out of proportion. Fortunately for that person though, she was hired but unfortunately during practice, she put an anal suppository into a vaginal route of a pediatric patient! And guess what? That person is still working there! Malpractice tolerated! Of course, they don’t want to put away a person who put so much effort to cook food for them and give away snacks for free. My God! Anal and vaginal routes clearly have an enormous difference in them, don’t you think so? That was a big thing, what made it worse was that the patient was a pediatric. Scary! Ugh, the light bulb moment was sure a relief.

But oh well, I treasure the times with my co-staff, my friends, my senior nurses whom I really love so much and most of them are still getting in touch with me and they were close to me than ever.

After realizing that I was part of an insane medical system in that hospital I transferred to a classy hospital in ortigas. It was really nice, the ambiance, the system and NSO has done a great job. The water was potable that will save you from buying bottled water. There was a huge supply of tissue and hand liquid soap hehehe!! I just love that, I got to wash my hands when stuffs get pretty infectious  You can request for a 24-hour supply of medications. Great, great help wherein they will just drop you the supplies whenever you needed them. It saves time. Residents were available anywhere except surgical residents who the heck just ignore paging systems (but not always in fairness). There was a bus exclusively for the employees that will bring you out that hospital and just anywhere you can ride going home (lot of help indeed). It was almost perfect. The hospital had a name which was clearly what demands for abroad wanted. But I guess you might be wondering why I left…again! Well here’s the thing, I just don’t work…I actually study and work. Going home everyday for 1:30 am or 2 am was just insane when in fact my duty was in the afternoon shift 2-10. It was a personal complaint; I don’t blame the hospital for that because it was a personal choice to go home at that time. What can I do? I had to finish everything and not let something hang up. But I was sometimes unsuccessful in doing that because patients were just coming in very fast. And one thing that really made me decide that I had enough was some of the staffs. Some of them were really bullies, uncooperative scrap of humanities. I kept quiet about that until I left. I had this thing with one of the staffs there. She really made me feel that I wasn’t worth it. She always put on that attitude that she’s been there for quite a while and I wasn’t. I had this philosophy that if something or someone is a threat to my positive outlook in life, then I don’t need them! Life is too short to just be around with people like that who I think doesn’t even know what camaraderie means.

There were a couple of times when she just nagged me about everything…those little things that just piled up in the end. Let me just tell you one story. I had a patient who was due for a hemodialysis. I asked the aide to help me transport the patient to the hemo center. While waiting for the time, I did my other duties. Until suddenly this girl that I was talking about just came up rushing to my face and telling me what the hell am I doing to her patient??? I was stunned; I didn’t know what to say because I practically didn’t know what happened. I went to her patient and I saw the aide changing her patient’s diaper. All the while she thought that the aide was going to bring her patient to the hemo center because she thought that I told her to do so. What's wrong was that she didn’t even ask the aide, she suddenly came up rushing to me and nagged me…again! I just kept my composure despite that I knew at that time I could just file a complaint against her disreputable behavior. But I didn’t, I just let it pass and decided to call it quits.

Another thing was there was this homosexual, hobbit-like nurse who let me endorse for a horrendous one hour and half. My golly, all he did was ask me history of where the lab results were and other stuffs which of course were impossible for me to answer since I wasn’t the one who admitted the patient. If he wanted me to track every single nurse who handled the patient just so I could answer his questions then probably that would be favorable for him. But I guess answering his questions within my shift wasn’t enough. He always ask me why I didn’t know. The next time I talked to him I guess I have to double myself to find out my shift and the previous shift just so I can answer his irrelevant questions. His actions were just to show that again, they were seniors and I wasn’t. Hehehe despicable!

Believe me when I say that I have done so much sacrifice to make people feel good despite their vile behaviors toward me. I can’t change them. I can only change myself. You cannot question that a person should avoid “loud and aggressive people, because they are vexations to the spirit” (remembering desiderata hehehe) just to be successful in life.  There are many solutions to problems; each way is unique to the other. Each way is individual for the person’s needs. But no matter how you do it, it has to make you feel good. Really! It all boils down to you being contented for something that you have done for yourself. Believe me, even if it’s wrong or right… you just have to go for the lesser evil and make you feel good about yourself. Life is really unfair and you have to admit that. Just enjoy while you can. If enjoying means that you have to get even with a health personnel’s repugnant personality then do so…just make sure that you hit him right where it hurts J

What’s With Attitude?

        I worked as a staff nurse in a popular tertiary hospital in ortigas. And from the very beginning of my trainings and exposures, “attitude” is already reiterated by everybody especially people in the nursing service office. Honestly speaking, during the first few days of our training, attitude was being elucidated negatively. The term itself wasn’t vindicated. It was like saying “may attitude itong tao na to” which was being interpreted as “may ere itong tao na ito”. The premise was said due to the feelings I got from other people about it. I have never seen such insinuation——I guess the term must have been overlooked. As days went by, with everybody telling the value it was just proper for them to tell its significance and its merit to the practice of nursing. The term itself connotes a way of thinking and behaving. The definition is very general, in other words, attitude is defined in each person’s way of thinking and behaving thus making attitude very sundry in its meaning and application. ATTITUDE IS PRACTICALLY EVERYTHING. 

           Applying attitude affirmatively is what going to make a difference. They say that success begins in the mind. Being a nurse needs dedication and commitment apart from being able to decipher more complicated tasks and apply them altogether. More often than not, attitude is made to be out window to the world. Being able to use ourselves for other people and not against them is very critical in the practice of nursing. Using ourselves creatively to magnet patients, co- staff and other authorities will help us be the best nurse we can be. It’s one way to picture success. Another is turning problems into opportunities…opportunities to learn and evaluate ourselves professionally and personally. Talking about attitude, as I’ve said before, watching your words is also of the essence. For people in the hospital, the nurses’ can blaze a trail. It can produce great impact on how one person thinks of himself. How one person speaks of great sense can tell you how this person probably thinks and behaves. Part of the attitude formation also denotes associating with positive people, confronting fears and networking.

           My thoughts are just minute to the whole wisdom of what attitude is all about. I really value expression of it especially in the nursing profession. Because attitude comes from the spirit, the spirit who takes over when the mind has had enough, greatness occurs beyond the mind and in the presence of the spirit.

An Ode to Instructors

       First of all, writing is my comfort zone. I am extremely thrilled everytime I get to write for just anything under the sun. This time I get to write to another definitive purpose—to present all technicalities and sentiments of being a registered nurse in the Philippines. Going back to the nurse profession was a monumental move for me. For one thing, confidence takes time to build. Knowledge and skills have to be established again. And to think that based on the year that I have graduated from nursing (1999), I am not getting any younger which makes me have to commence practicing again hence thinking that I don’t want to put a noble profession into waste. By the time I finally decided to cross the threshold of the nursing profession, success became my motivation. It is easy to say but yes, very arduous to achieve. But non in life is easy anyway. From the moment you choose, you better choose hard because that’s when you can test your capabilities and potentials.             

       I admit to be an apprentice in the practice of nursing because professionally speaking my services are more psychological or behavioral rather than physiological. But what makes nursing excellent in its practice is I get to do both in the same profession. My expectations in my clinical exposures are limited to the camaraderie between staff nurses. For me, there’s nothing more comfortable than working in a very harmonious place with harmonious people even when pressures of work arise. In other words, experiencing comfort and just enough trouble will enable you to know the difference. Success also comes when you are willing to be uncomfortable. There’s no question about the knowledge and skills that clinical instructors vigorously edify in our minds because the application of it significantly depends on me. Working hard is the main point and the major effort would definitely have to come from me.

           “Whatever you vividly imagine, ardently desire, sincerely believe and enthusiastically act upon must inevitably come from you.” Paul J. Meyer            

Getting Started

     Starting a blog is very easy, the motivation is there but updating it is quite difficult since being a registered nurse in the Philippines occupy most of your time or may even consume your life. I chose this graphics for the blog because essentially TIME is of utmost importance to a registered nurse or just being a health personnel for that matter. I hope I will serve as a 'light bulb moment" for other nurses who work their ass off for a little money in PI. This will also serve as my outlet from the daily, overwhelming experiences in the hospital. Read on, find out more about being a nurse in PI (if you've already gone off to abroad before even serving your country) and pick up from the bitter sweet realities of being a nurse.