I'm officially a month old volunteer at the hospital!

Kudos to myself for able to tolerate the wrath of the attending physicians, critical colleagues, weekly boring seminars, only one day off per week, night shifts, excessively shrewd watchers, crazy AND's for removing the chairs in all wards permanently [leaving us standing the entire shift], and etc.

On the lighter note, I have learned several techniques & styles under the preceptorship of my seniors for the past month:

Yolly. Calm despite the number of patients being taken care of.  Time management.  Fast charting. Confident in dealing with AP's.

Jenny. HGT monitoring. NGT feeding. Paper works.

Ann. Insulin injection. IV insertion. Paper works.

Mards. Even though we only worked once, I've learned the value of precise amount of delivery of IV fluids--how much and when it should exactly be consumed.

Nell. Also, worked with her once. She made me realized that memorizing the details of each patient (8-12) is possible despite the lack of my short term memory. Being serious and effective in giving patient care.

Chesca. Being courteous at ALL times. Saying thank you and po can never fail you.

Carol. When she asks, it always mean STAT.

Mamai. Wish I could work with her soon.

Rose. Charting. Allowing and trusting me to handle patient. Informing and correcting me with my errors in charting.

Eden. For explaining and answering my makulit na questions. Allowing me to endorse my patient to the OR staff.

These may seemed small. But "great things are done by a series of small things brought together (Van Gogh)."

Welcome to the club! (talking to myself)

I feel so empty with the same routine I've been doing for the past 3 weeks. Work-home-work-home.  I thought having a work will fill that void inside.  At first, I was enjoying my work 'coz it kept me preoccupied. However, little by little I get tired of it. Probably, I'm the type of person who get bored easily with what i do or maybe not. I like my colleagues because it's easy to patch up with them despite our differences in work ethics. Most of them are younger than me which is cool. 

Yesterday, it took me an extra effort to get up and change to my uniform. I already failed to attend 2 sunday masses. Maybe that nurse from ER is right...I need a lovelife.  Thinking of what he said, I really need to start dating since there are no more factors (i.e, school, exams) except one that can hinder to it.

ID SPEAKING. 3-5 days of rest and isolation? fcuk!

I'm so tired of staying in my room and plainly doing nothing at all.  I wanna get my sorry ass to work already! I even bargained with the ROD (resident on duty), "tor, pwede ba 2 days nalng?" She said, "no, kawawa mga patients when you do your rounds." She's right I admitted in my mind but I actually feel ok already. My eyes don't hurt when I stare at bright lights. I've been taking my meds for 5 days now. So what's wrong if I wanna work stat?

SUPEREGO SPEAKING. Stop this nonsense. Just follow the doctor's order and rest. The doctor knows what's best for you. You don't want to spread your disease to other staff and patients. Remember, you're a nurse. Be a good model to others.

EGO SPEAKING. I have no choice but to follow that damned woman's order.

My 9-month old talking nephew. hehe!

I got this from Sue. I don't actually hate my work. It's just so hilarious not to post it in my blog. Here goes:

In prison you spend the majority of your time in an 8' X 10' cell.
At work you spend most of your time in a 6' X 8' cubicle.

In prison you get three meals a day.
At work you only get a break for one meal and you have to pay for that one.

In prison you get time off for good behavior.
At work you get rewarded for good behavior with more work.

At work you must carry around a security card and unlock and open all the doors yourself.
In prison a guard locks and unlocks all the doors for you.

In prison you can watch TV and play games.
At work you get fired for watching TV and playing games.

In prison they ball-and-chain you when you go somewhere.
At work you are just ball-and-chained.

In prison you get your own bathroom.
At work you have to share.

In prison they allow your family and friends to visit.
At work you cannot even speak to your family and friends.

In prison all expenses are paid by taxpayers, with no work required.
At work you get to pay all the expenses to go to work and then they deduct taxes from your salary to pay for the prisoners.

In prison you spend most of your life looking through bars from the inside wanting to get out.
At work you spend most of your time wanting to get out and inside bars.

In prison you can join many programs which you can leave at any time.
At work there are some programs you can never get out of.

In prison there are wardens who are often sadistic.
At work we have Managers.

I got viral conjunctivitis for 2 days already! Most probably I got it from my workplace since nobody at home has this plague. grrrr! God knows what I'm missing in my work. Hope it's gone by tomorrow morning. Terramycin, please don't fail me.

It feels so great when you least expect to receive a gesture of gratitude from your patient's watcher. Yes, indeed, today I experienced one. This is the first ever patient that I handle by myself (without my senior's watchful eyes to my every move).

After giving osterized feeding to my post-CVA patient, I went to the nurse's station to wash the materials used in that procedure. While washing I overheard from the sink the patient's watcher saying, "give these [bananas] to the tall nurse." wahaha! It was delightful. It really MADE my day! Small acts of kindness goes a long way. It made me forget the hassles I went and will go through in this hospital.