they kept on DEMANDING… we are COLLAPSING

August 9, 2008

 

I’m done with VACATION and I’m back to reality. And our census ballooned into a whooping 63, in fact 66 if we will include the lobby (hear that). It’s the same scenario, patients from different walks of life with different healthcare needs. But what’s recent is that there are more middle-class individuals who are admitted in our poor-incomplete-lowtech-charity ward. Maybe, this occurrence has been brought about by the inflation of so many commodities that most people can’t even afford to fancy a swanky-upscale hospital.

 

Recently, there were so many demands like, prioritizing their patient because they are also working at the government and we should empathize. We do prioritize our patients, but in this circumstance, we are catering to 63 patients, considering that 16 of those are “ICU-able” and are hooked to mechanical ventilators and should be monitored frequently, so they come 1^st in terms of prioritization. Did I mention there are only two as in: “DOS-DUHA-ER-DEUX-2,” nurses who are catering for these patients.

 

Demands in my ward comes in like speeding hurricane, awaiting to tear us apart. Ma’am the IV of my patient is about to be consumed pls attend to it, ma’am my patient accidentally removed his IV pls hurry, ma’am my patient pulled out his NGT HURRY, ma’am my mom is having difficulty of breathing, ma’am my mom can’t sleep pls do something, ma’am I don’t have an appetite to eat what can I do, ma’am the patient is on cardiac arrest, ma’am another patient is not having any pulse, ma’am where’s that chart of patient so and so, ma’am do you have any prescription, where’s the gloves, your laryngoscope is not working find me another one, pls change the wire guide, why aren’t there IV tags… and so on and so forth and the demands never STOP and they all come in at the same time… SANITY, SANITY, pls stay with ME.

 

Of all these demands, it’s lucky for us if they will ask us kindly and they will say please. Most often, some other people think that we are their slaves that we should swiftly attend to their qualms. Of course, knowing the ratio and proportion constraint that we are facing we can’t attend to them as quickly as they want especially when we are still catering to patients who have problems with ABC (airway, breathing, circulation) after all, that’s where we root our prioritization. Then tension rises, and as a professional you should keep your cool and should bear in mind that you’re there to CARE… “INNER PEACE… INNER PEACE.” But then this assertive watcher returns, shouting his nerves out, looking possessed and hell-bound, telling us all forms of threats:  that they’ve been paying taxes and should be served right, that they are politicians, nurses, working in the government, they are friends with the chief of hospital, they will expose us to the media etc… etc… “INNER PEACE!” “INNER PEACE!” “SANITY!” “HEAR ME SANITY!”

Apart from those threats, they even call us “TANGA” and the like. Pardon, baka ikaw?! If we were indeed clumsy, we should’ve been in jail suffering from malpractice of some sort because of lumbering incapacity, but we aren’t. In fact, we even came from pricey prestigious schools to get educated to be able to qualify to attend to them. We even managed to pass exams from the local ones up to the lavish international ones. In addition, we have qualified to work abroad and are just awaiting our documents (OH DEAR GOD PLS MAKE IT QUICK!). So where’s the “TANGA” part there, if we were “TANGA” we couldn’t have gotten as far as we did. FIGURE THAT?! KAPISH?!

These things often times makes me frustrated about working. Why can’t they understand? If they want to have high-end service, where in, in just one click they will be attended to, one in which the ratio of one nurse to a patient is 1:1, then they are guaranteed that their expectations will be served even beyond their imaginations. But the thing is, they don’t have the money to be admitted to those luxurious hospitals so they settle for us. Why don’t they put the blame to the government, why? Because everything originated there. If they will give an ample amount of budget for healthcare, then government hospitals will be adequately managed with healthcare providers and the ratio is well proportioned. But then our government is so busy dealing with other things that HEALTHCARE has been disregarded.

As this situation is slowly engulfing and gnawing us, we are inch-by-inch weakened physically and emotionally. It’s either one grows a calloused heart or one resigns because he can’t handle the PRESSURE. Another deduction to the work force. I just hope someday this PROBLEM will be resolved.

Lastly, of all these precarious innuendo, we are not compensated well; we don’t have hazard pay, overtime pay and all those insurance stuffs that will ensure us of our own HEALTH. So our unconscious motto is, “CARE AT YOUR OWN RISK.” You can’t really blame a nurse who is toiling hard to have the sweetest desire of WORKING ABROAD, where in we are COMPENSATED WELL, TAX-FREE, with ALL THOSE PRIVILEGES and STUFFS. And free from those draining RUBBISH.