Update

Went AWOL from my call center job. Sayang ang napakalaking salary pero worth it naman na ipagpalit ito sa nursing job. I'm just gonna miss my wave-mates in the center. I had a super-stressful days in the production floor at ayoko nang maulit yon.

1 week pa lang ako sa duty pero pumayat na ako agad. Ayus! At pinag-16 hours na rin ako last Friday. Buti na lang sa ICU yung OT ko at least hindi haggard. I'm still getting the hang of it. Toxic ang duty ko kagabi sa admission ko na dapat for ICU kaso the patient refused. Ayon, kanda-pagod ako sa pag-set-up ng infusion pump, pag-carry out ng 4 pages of doctor's orders, at pag-request ng 10 medications na oral and IV at kanda-kalyo daliri ko kakasulat sa chart.

2011 is gonna be My Year

After a long hiatus from blogging and bumming around, I've finally regained myself for being back to nursing duties again! Yes, folks, I am employed again. But not quite. A nurse reliever like me always hopes she gets hired in the hospital in spite of everything. Such as the number of job vacancy versus the number of hopeful nurses vying for the position. We're 20 in our batch competing for just 8 job vacancies. Imagine that.

I am on on-call basis. The Nursing Service Office will call us hours prior the duty time. That means you have to drop everything and be there in the hospital if you want to impress the "judges" (i.e., that nursing staff, head nurse, supervisors, HR manager). They have a list of those nurse relievers who are always available versus unavailable. That's why I'm trying to impress them. And I succeeded! I made the supervisors happy and praised me for being on duty before and during the New Year's Eve.

They said they will recommend me to HR and they would escalate my ranking from ## to #!

Yehey! Happy New Year indeed!

Learnings in the Ward

Being almost 3 months in the ward is not enough for me to adjust in the ward. Honestly, I feel stupid in my job most of the time. I hate to bug the staff nurses with my questions. But after the Nursing Supervisor talked to me regarding my first strong warning on a documentation error and advised me to "always ask if in doubt." I don't care anymore if nakukulitan ako basta kapag hindi ako sure or hindi ko mabasa ang sulat doctor ng mga doctor, nagtatanong talaga ako. Sabihin na nilang toxic ako. Minsan, some of the doctors do get annoyed by me if I notify them about my patient's conditions. What's important is that I made them aware and that's one of my toughest jobs--to deal with tyrant doctors.

I've got so many learnings to share with you in the next few days. I need to sleep now. I don't have a duty tomorrow but I will be attending a lecture in the hospital. Goodnight guys!

Toxicity

I'm so thankful of my area that is 4A. Supportive at understanding ang staff sa 4A.

2 weeks pa lang ako sa Ward as a trainee (meaning, I still need mentoring and coaching) nito nahihirapan na ako. What more kung rookie staff na ako? Oh gosh! Please pray for me. Any area but the other side of 4A. You're asking why? Because "nangangagat" ang ibang staff dun, based on my experience last Tuesday.

The experience was pretty... pretty ugly! 2-10 shift ko that day. Tapos absent ang mga senior staff namin kaya nag-pull out ng 2 senior staff from 2 different floors. Yung isa mabait, mahinahon, maayos ang trato sa mga noobs like me, and maayos makipag-usap.

The other one is the EXACT opposite of all the traits I've stated above. Hell yeah!

Toxic begins at around 4p.m. Patient X is for thoracenthesis stat due to some fluids accumulated in her lungs. "Stat" means now which results from panic among young doctors and nurses (me and my supposed mentor) because we have to prepare the materials needed which are not readily available in our area. True enough, when the consultant (specialist doctor) does the procedure, kulang-kulang ang gamit nila kaya labas pasok ako sa room ng patient.

After the procedure, the specimen aspirated from the patients lungs is MISSING. That's the start of the crankiness of my "buddy." She's a smoker, by the way, kaya ganun. She scolded me hanapin ko daw kase patient ko yun dapat alam ko ano ginamit sa kanya etc.

I found the specimen vial in the yellow trash bin (yellow=infectious). She's the one who discarded it. Darn it.

Toxic relative: Now, the patient's daughter, who turns out to be a health worker, arrives and complains that the procedure was incorrectly done daw. She wasn't even there kaya natatawa lang ako nung umaangal sya sa kin na kesyo "mali ang tusok nyo."

Toxic patient: The husband calls the nurse's station to report that his wife has turned into paper white appearance. Sobrang pale nya. So the resident doctors arrive and checks her blood pressure (60/palpatory=hypotension) and made some orders: ECG (c/o me), CBG (c/o me), dopamine drip (c/o me), lab works (c/o med tech.). My buddy left me alone on these tasks. Good riddance, tinulungan ako ng co-trainee ko who has 8 months experience in the ICU. What a relief!

Aside from these tasks, may mga documentation pa yan, may 2 pa akong patients na aasikasuhin who need medications and monitoring. May charting pa. In fairness to my senior buddy, she did naman the charting of the toxic patient. Grabe, every hour may doctor's order pa.

Finally, that patient was ordered to be transferred to ICU (c/o me and my senior buddy).

After transferring the patient, akala ko uwian na. May 2 patients pa pala ako. I did a skin test with the newly admitted patient to test if he's allergic to the antibiotic that he needs. Tapos charting/documentation ulit.

Ayon, natapos din ang gabi, nakauwi ako ng intact ang sanity at license ko.

Double Shift

Last Saturday I was pulled out to ICU during the night shift. Boy am I so glad! I miss the ICU! True enough, I enjoyed the experience of being there again, though in a different hospital. It's like being at home. I handled a benign (easy to manage) case. My patient has a heplock (a device inserted into the vein of your hand into which nurses inject some medications) and an oxygen via nasal (through the nose) cannula ONLY and the usual hourly monitoring of vital signs, e.g., blood pressure, temperature, pulse rate, and breathing.

Come 5 a.m. the senior staff nurse asked if I wanted to render another 8 hours (that's 6am-2pm!) because some staff nurses won't be reporting for work. I thought it's ok so I said yes. I was groggy by 7am. I couldn't focus. I'm making medication cards for the nth time and I couldn't get it right. I tried to focus on medication administration just to make sure my license won't get provoked by medication errors.

As the day progresses, I am able to cope with lack of sleep. I didn't get a nap at all out of hiya with my superiors in spite of them asking me to try to get a quick nap.

Note to self: hindi ko na uulitin ang mag-16 hours when it's 10pm-6am going to 6am-2pm.

PVZ

I've been so preoccupied with playing plants vs. zombies the past few days that's why I haven't been blogging. It's my only outlet after a hard day's "work" at 4A in the hospital. I survived 69 flags in endless mode and still trying to beat myself for that. Pag sinipag, I would try to cheat on lots of suns to get me through the 100 flags.

4A is the next most toxic floor in our hospital. What I mean by "toxic" is when there are so many patients with too many things to monitor plus irate relatives all to be handled by one nurse. Thank heavens there are relievers, nurse trainees, ward clerk, and nursing assistants who make a staff nurse's life easier.

Bye-bye Amang Rodriguez

I backed out from my orientation in Amang Rodriguez Memorial Medical Center last Thursday in lieu of De Los Santos Medical Center. Too bad I wasn't able to serve in a government hospital. I passed my application in Amang in December last year and got a call from them only two weeks ago. I called the Nursing Office and asked if I could join in the next batch. The personnel said the next batch is already filled up and the next application period will be next year.

So bye-bye to Amang.

De Los Santos is accepting applicants for staff nurses. Just go the HR office at the basement near the parking lot and the back of the hospital and give your requirements to the guard on duty.

By the way, I'm off to Baler, Aurora in a few minutes. Looking forward to surfing (if I could brave the waves and if I could afford it).

Ciao!

4th Day

This is my fourth day in DLS as a trainee. It's not fun-filled dahil walang makukulit sa group. Lecture days until May 5. We already had exams yesterday on dosage calculations and a 100-item enumeration/fill-in-the-blanks exam on nursing procedures/skills (funda kung funda talaga!).

Just to review, here are some questions from the super enumeration-filled exam. I've provided the surest answers I got:

> complications of giving otic meds in its extreme condition=vertigo, dizziness ...

> things you should avoid in choosing intramuscular injection site=mole, birthmark, scar tissue,

> subcutaneous injection sites=lateral upper arms and thighs, fat pads on abdomen, upper hips

> reasons why you should rotate injection sites in giving insulin

> stock dose of potassium chloride = 40mL/20mL

> the best injection site for emaciated and elderly patients

> the best injection site for 7 months old and above = ventrogluteal

> the best position when instilling nasal meds

> indications for nasogastric tube insertion

> indications for indwelling catheter

> examples of meds for treating glaucoma = beta blockers and NSAIDS

> reasons for doing tracheostomy care

> reasons for doing suctioning

I find this one question so mind-boggling: give 6 reasons why you have to fill the urinary catheter balloon with 10mL of PNSS... I mean, why does it have to be 6 reasons? I can only give 2 sensible answers, 4 are just wild guess. In the book, there are only 2 reasons. Maybe I should ask Mr. JP about it. If only we're allowed to save the presentation in our personal USB's.

Good day!

After long weeks of waiting, here at last is the text message from Delos Santos-STI Medical Center:

Now I'm ready for it! I'll say good bye to Plants vs. Zombies once duty starts (sacrifice). I won't be late or absent until I'm a regular employee (hehe! joke!). I will be good (even if others are not).

I need to thank God for this long-awaited opportunity. At long last, after 2 years of being a jobless nurse, here it is. I know that He directed me to be a part of this hospital because He knows that it is the best one for me (after so many failures in SLMC --2nd priority in Global, and failed in the 2nd exam in QC).

Hospital Requirements (by request)

Per request of She, here are the requirements for application in Marikina Valley Medical Center and Delos Santos-STI Medical Center (subject to change without prior notice, so better call them or personally go to the HR office):

Marikina Valley Medical Center:

1. Letter of Intent (May M. Bon, RN, MAN - chief nurse)
2. Comprehensive Resume
3. Diploma
4. TOR
5. PRC Certificate (the one that looks like a diploma with the picture on it) and PRC License --if you're batch 2009 and don't still have it, just tell the HR and they will still consider your application. I have batchmates who are from Batch 2009 :)
6. Certificate of Passing (without breakdown of rating) and Board Rating Certificate (with breakdown of rating)
7. BLS Training Certificate
8. Birth Certificate
9. PNA Membership (updated)
10. IV Training certificate and License
11. Marriage Contract (if applicable)
12. NBI or Police Clearance
13. ID picture - BLUE Blackground (2 copies of 1x1 and 2 copies of 2x2)

>Submit photocopy of all requirements (updated) in a BLUE LONG SLIDING FOLDER (plastic or paper). Bring original copies for verification.

>Proceed to the 7th floor HR office and look for Sir Mickey to evaluate your papers. He's so accommodating. He's also a RN

>The next batch of volunteers will start by April or May this year.

>Their volunteer program is the first step in their hiring process. It's a 3-month program without fees. You will get Php100 allowance on night shifts. If they like your performance (they value pakikisasama, good attitude, and face value), you have a better chance of getting hired :)

DELOS SANTOS-STI MEDICAL CENTER

Resume
Pic (1x1) 1 pc
(2x2) 2 pcs
TOR
Diploma
RLE
Board rating Cert
PRC ID
NBI Clearance
BIR 2306 (if previously employed w/in a year)
SSS
TIN card
Cedula
Certificate of good moral character (from 2 references)

>The training process is different from preemployment process. The training has a fee. The preemployment doesn't have a fee, only a 300-item exam and 3 interviews.

Good luck, she and to other fellow nurse applicants :)

Exam at DLSSTIMC

Naubos ang tinta ng ballpen kong blue sa haba ng exam. 300 items lahat. 100 multiple choice. 50 enumerations, 25 drug calculations, 50 points essay, 25 unit conversion, 10 true or false, and 50 matching type. I have 2 blanks in enumeration and 200+ unsure answers. Goodluck. That was yesterday afternoon. I had to leave my training at MVMC to give way to this exam kase pre-employment ito. Sana I would get through kase my saving's running dry na. I don't want to ask money from my Dad. Nahihiya na ako especially now that he's jobless. This is crisis. Buti na lang may lovelife kami pareho kundi mas miserable ang mundo kapag walang partner. Balanse pa naman kahit papano ang buhay. Good life pa rin. Comfortable.

Fro now, masasabi ko na super enjoy ako sa training days ko sa MVMC. Alive na alive ang batch to the point na minsan nasasaway na kami dahil sa ingay namin. Next week, deployment na namin sa designated areas. Ayoko na sa ICU and OR. Sana sa Ward na lang ako ilagay. Katakot eh. Baka manginig lang ako pag nag-serve ng gloves at instruments habang nakatingin ang buong surgical team sa kin tulad ng previous experience ko sa MCGH.