As a Little Nurse... This is what I do :)

I started working in UERM as an orientee nurse around February of 2010 together with Maggie, Maverick, Arax, Roni, Bernice and Lorraine. The orientation being held at the Nursing Education office took one week with a duration of 8 hours a day. After that week, we were already assigned to our own respective wards. Luckily, I was put to one of my favorite wards... 4East. During my stay at that ward, I gained knowledge about what a Nurse really does in a hospital or practical setting. I learned how to be punctual and arrange the medications as soon as I get there. They thought me how to properly receive an endorsement from an outgoing Nurse, review the charts from the previous shift, receive an order, review medications, giving of meds, charting and so on. In short, they thought me almost everything that I could learn. Thanks to Mam Cora and Sir Chris who were there and who had been very patient in teaching me. 

After a brief delibration, Mam Tenerife of Nsg.Educ called me for me to report on duty the next day on morning shift. Meaning to say, I am officially employed. Officially a Nurse... earning money. Hahaha. They first asked me to report on the same ward that I had my orientation. Of course, I was happy. Who wouldn't be happy returning to a ward that had been your home? Anyhoo, few hours after my duty started, I was asked by Sir Chris to assist a patient to go to GIT room for a procedure when suddenly, Sir Chris followed me there and said that Mrs. Dacanay our Assistant Chief Nurse wanted to talk to me. So yea, I called her back and she said that I should immediately report to 3 North 2 ward,  a ward just on the 3rd floor. Haha. Upon hearing that, I felt so sad because reality is I was not meant to work there :/ 


Welcome to 3 North 2! This time, I didn't feel the same excitement I get everytime I work at 4East but atleast I have a classmate from college who was also assigned there so It wouldn't be that hard, I guess knowing that I have an instant friend named Mij :) 3 North 2 is basically a general pay ward located at the 3rd floor of UERM Hospital. Back then, It consists of 14 rooms but the room 333 was made as our stock room. Our Head Nurse is Mam Marlo and the Staff Nurses are Ate Ofel, Ate Ara, Ate Ella, Ate Wendy, Ate April, Ranjith, Miguel and Angel plus Me. We also have our Nursing Aide: Ate Gemma, Ate Annie, Ate Lena, Ate Lucy and Ate Kathy. 

Me: 3 North 2 this is Anna, how may I help you?

Adm: Mam, may admission po. Sa room 327.

Me: Okay po. (Get the details of the patient) From ER po ba ito o Direct?

Adm: From ER po.

Me: Sige, papalinis muna namin yung room. 

So I started to prepare the chart and everything. Waiting for ER's call since the patient will be from the ER. Then, the admitting called again:

Me: 3 North 2 this is Anna, how may I help you?

Adm: May admission po ulit. Room 331.

Me: San po galing?

Adm: Sa ER po.

Whoa! I could smell TOXIC :) Anyway, at exactly 1 AM while I was doing my IV rounds, a patient in a stretcher was being brought to our ward with a complete set-up... name it, she had it. So I called the admitting and got really mad at them for not telling me that the patient was not from ER and she had this complete set-up. I started panicking. I honestly didn't know what to do and then the room that they had was pretty small considering she had this contraptions. But wait there's more, alongside of this admission, my another admission was also being brought up from ER. FUN indeed. Then the rest is history. 


During those times, I experienced being yelled by a Doctor, being summoned by supervisors and even having Incident Reports, CPAR and Explanation for which I didn't really do anything wrong and that made me cry. Yea, I was a crybaby but that was because I was still on probation and there are still no guarantee if I could make it as a regular staff nurse. 


At 3 North 2, I also experienced my first birthday in a hospital. Since, I was not yet a regular employee yet, I was not entitled with a benefit of having a birthday leave. So I welcomed my 22nd bday working on my first solo duty ever, handling a full house ward... in the season of DENGUE. Basically, I was the only nurse at my ward with an aide and a junior intern whose name is Gelo. And did I mention that in that duty, I had to transfuse 6 units of platelets on a patient, had to feed 4 patients two times in my shift and also be the medication nurse. 

November of 2010, my ward together with 4 North were set to be renovated. Meaning to say I would be assigned to different wards each and every day and one of the wards that I didn't want to be in was 4 South (Do I still need to elaborate on that) But of course, FORTUNATELY, I was always assigned there. My experience at 4 South was more different that what I had at 4 East and 3 North 2 because 4 South is should I say, the most toxic ward of the whole pay ward. The system there is different from ours... very different! I was always assigned to receive either the middle or the front wing and have I mentioned that those wings are really far from the Nurses' Station so everytime I give my medications or attend to patients' needs, I had to make sure that I have all what I need to conserve time and yea, energy. Haha. At 4 South, I just had to receive 8-9 patients but I will also be the Med Nurse of those patients. It was always tiring being there, having a duty there but the skills that I gained were awesome! I also learned how to be more FAST but SURE in every actions that I made. 4 South will always be a memorable ward for me for it is where I experienced my first Code ever and as usual, I am not a perfect Nurse, I made a mistake when I was about to transfer my patient to CCU and eventually I learned from that mistake. Tip: Don't panic, just do what you have to do and do not RUSH :) After few weeks of uncertainty to what ward would I work with, I was assigned to 4 East again and will stay there until my ward is done. Yey! Reunited again with my first ward :) Felt so good although it was a more larger 4 East compared to as before since it was also renovated. Pay ward will always be BUSY and TOXIC, and I already embraced the thought of it :) With my experiences at 3 North 2 and 4 South, I felt I was already capable of being a responsible and good nurse and I think I did good. I spent my first New Year's Eve at 4 East, not with my family. It was memorable because we only had 3 patients but the catch was my aide Glesyl was pulled-out at 4 South and my co-staff Miguel was brought down to ER for an extra help so in short, I was alone. Haha. I loved 4 East and leaving them was really hard because I already got close to all the staff and they had become a family to me and those night duties wherein Roni and I would do our own rounds pretending to be just going to the SHO. Those were the nights :) And those, lectures and sermons about LOVE. 

 

Reality bites: I had to go back to my own ward and what made it worst was two of closest co-staff will not be going back with me. Miguel stayed at 4 East for good and Angel made it be the newest staff of ER. It sucked for me! Welcome to the new 3 North 2 :) New ward, bigger census (as big as 4 South) and new staff. I together with Mam Marlo, Ate Ara and Ate Ofel were left as the original 3 North 2 Staff Nurses. Some of the new staff nurse were Avery and Keifer from Surgery, Jean, Moshie and Kat from Neuro, Ate Donna, Kreistian and Ate Mafe of Med ward and Ate Jen from 3 North 1 replacing Ate Wendy. We also had our new probationary nurses Jianne, Jovi, Ralph, Raj and Tania all from the batch Aeolus (the batch after us). Together with the opening 3N2, I also became somewhat senior to the new staff eventhough some of them were much seniors to me because most of them came from the Charity ward the protocol and the system are really different from us coming from the Pay ward. This senior thing, gave me a sense of having this responsibility of knowing the WHATS and the HOWS in the pay ward. It also gave me this confidence to be a good kind of nurse :) And that time, I always wanted to be the Charge Nurse instead of the Medication Nurse because I already had this time management skills that I learned being rotated at those wards that I mentioned a while ago and the hellish experiences that I had during The OLD 3 North 2. By this time, I also had been friends with a lot of hospital people from the Consultants up to the global people :)  

Then my Visa came. I had to resign from the work that I began to LOVE and VALUE. It was hard leaving all these people who had been so close to me and who had been a family to me. And most especially, leaving the work itself. The thought of me not receiving and endorsing, not carrying out orders, not admitting patients, not referring to the resident on duty, not giving meds, not doing my IV rounds, not charting, not experiencing the Input=0 Output=0, not having those kilig moments with my Didi... all those and a lot more just made it so much harder for me. 

May 2011. My last month as a Staff Nurse. Honestly, I just wanted May not to end but It had to. So, during this last month, I just spent it by savouring each and every moment that I had with my friends from the hospital, by being the Charge Nurse always, drowning myself into endless admissions :)

Last two days :[ Bittersweet memories. 

 

 

I really do miss them so much :/ Sometimes, I just want to take a look at these photos for hours so I could remember somehow that I was happy and content with my working life as a Little Nurse. And most of all, I miss my Work, although the salary may not be that high compared to here in Australia but the experiences, the knowledge and the friends that I gained are more than what I asked for to God. I miss youuu, my UERM peeps. I shall be seeing all of you soon :)