Few more months and my contract with DOH would end. Oooohhh I can't wait for that time to come. I get too exhausted with my hospital duties and I'm losing weight! Duh. When I was in the *RHU, I'm 44kg. But now? I guess <40kg. haha...
Anyways highways, LOL here is my journal for the month of October. If you're not interested, feel free to leave. Charrr.
Routine nursing care is what we do in the hospital. We receive patients, assess their condition, provide health teaching, facilitate laboratory exams, secure lab results and relay them to ROD or Attending Physician, do charting, give oral and IV medications then endorse patients to the next nurses on duty.
I encountered a lot of patients whose condition has become worse and needed to be transferred in a larger hospital facility that is equipped with modern instruments. There was a time when I had to do continuous ambubagging to a newborn, but then she deteriorated after few hours. We tried reviving her, to no avail.
I learned to manage my time effectively especially during the morning shift where a lot of work has to be done. I learned to prioritize my patients according to their condition and needs.
I managed to do CPR to a newborn and learned that we cannot save everybody; even those who seem stable could die.
I learned to be extra cautious in giving meds. I learned to deal with people of different ages and with different attitudes. Sometimes, patient’s relatives could really be annoying but as a nurse, I have (we have) to do our best to understand them and give our support and **TLC.
Inappropriate nurse-patient ratio is still a concern that needs to be addressed immediately. The hospital should only cater patients it can handle. Nurses also feel exhausted and need to rest sometimes.
An inadequate hospital supply is still an issue. We cannot always improvise in order to do a certain procedure. As much as we want to render utmost nursing care, we lack the necessary tools to do that.
Transportation during the night is quite hard.
I hope that the government would see and address the inappropriate nurse-patient ratio in district hospitals. If possible, they should hire more nurses in order to promote health care. They should also give adequate supplies, if feasible.
I hope that LGU would continue their support in this RNheals project.
***
I. Activities
Routine nursing care is what we do in the hospital. We receive patients, assess their condition, provide health teaching, facilitate laboratory exams, secure lab results and relay them to ROD or Attending Physician, do charting, give oral and IV medications then endorse patients to the next nurses on duty.
I encountered a lot of patients whose condition has become worse and needed to be transferred in a larger hospital facility that is equipped with modern instruments. There was a time when I had to do continuous ambubagging to a newborn, but then she deteriorated after few hours. We tried reviving her, to no avail.
II. Learning / Insights
I learned to manage my time effectively especially during the morning shift where a lot of work has to be done. I learned to prioritize my patients according to their condition and needs.
I managed to do CPR to a newborn and learned that we cannot save everybody; even those who seem stable could die.
I learned to be extra cautious in giving meds. I learned to deal with people of different ages and with different attitudes. Sometimes, patient’s relatives could really be annoying but as a nurse, I have (we have) to do our best to understand them and give our support and **TLC.
III. Issues / Concerns
Inappropriate nurse-patient ratio is still a concern that needs to be addressed immediately. The hospital should only cater patients it can handle. Nurses also feel exhausted and need to rest sometimes.
An inadequate hospital supply is still an issue. We cannot always improvise in order to do a certain procedure. As much as we want to render utmost nursing care, we lack the necessary tools to do that.
Transportation during the night is quite hard.
IV. Recommendations
I hope that the government would see and address the inappropriate nurse-patient ratio in district hospitals. If possible, they should hire more nurses in order to promote health care. They should also give adequate supplies, if feasible.
I hope that LGU would continue their support in this RNheals project.
***
I know, my journal contains the same-old-tune. But what could I do? This is what we really do in our duty. ROUTINE. Duh.
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*Rural Health Unit
**Tender Loving Care
thanks for sharing. always interesting to know what goes on on the other side of the hospital... ;) keep up the good work and i wish the local government can really do something to help the nurse patient ratio...
ReplyDeletethis is the real scenario in district hospitals...
ReplyDeletethanks for reading :))