Affected

Lots of bad news:

Earthquake in Negros. Tragic, scary, and a lot of people have died and others are still missing.

Death of the nicest anesthesiologist in our hospital. They said he died due to complication of cardiomegaly, i.e. enlargement of the heart. He's the only anesthesiologist who would attend to the nurse's call in the wee hours of the morning when the patients are in severe pain and needs immediate relief due to cancer.

I've been so hooked with this book, I finished reading it in 2 days:

Tina Fey made my day (pun not intended! Haha.)!  She's fun to read, really! Really? Like, I would laugh in practically every page of this book, from the first until the last page. I'm actually re-reading tonight.

Here are excerpts from this awesome book:

I got what I wanted this year. I have no right to complain about life's unpleasant surprises. I got the job that I've been praying for (to be a staff nurse, that is). I have a man who loves me for who I am and takes very good care of me in every way that he can.

Merry Christmas to everyone!

To be or not to be

Mareregular ba ako sa November 1? That is the question. I had 2 weeks of absence due to chicken pox, 1 emergency leave due to typhoon/flood, 2 incident reports, 1 warning due to not filing leaves, and other mess I did on duty. Huhuhu. Buti na lang, mahal ako ng colleagues ko. Hindi nila ako pinababayaan at pinagkanulo.

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!

What's your plan?

Friends often ask me what my plan is when I chat with them. They are those who have already migrated abroad. These immigrant friends have successful careers back in their native land. I wanted to ask them why they bothered to go to another country where there are blizzards and bland foods. But I dare not because they have already spent hundreds of thousand pesos just to seek greener pasture.

But not all of us can take living in a foreign land. You can't buy happiness. Furthermore, it's more expensive keeping up a decent lifestyle abroad. If you want to have a decent life there then you must work like a dog. I know some people abroad who needs subsidy or owes money from their relatives here in the Philippines. Sila na nga nasa US, sila pa nanghihiram ng pera dito sa Pilipinas. But if you work there as a nurse, your future is safe.

So, what m I waiting for? Review time for NCLEX!