Sunday, August 8, 2010

So I decided I'm not going to keep my current life as a trainee nurse a secret but instead, ironically like all other things, I'm going to blog about it. Let's just say I'm training in a tertiary government hospital in Metro Manila (okay FINE, I'm talking about QMMC) and is assigned in the OB Ward which consist of 3 parts, OB Main Ward, OB Extension and Lying-In. We, the trainees, are called PNTPs and I am a part of the 12 trainees of our batch.

Our schedule in our first two weeks of stay is strictly 6am-2pm Monday to Friday but we were told that afterward we will have our own rotational schedules and 2 off days. We 12 were split into 3 groups and were assigned to one of the sub-wards.

Overcrowded maternity ward in a Metro Manila hospital. (Not actual picture, but close)

First stop was Lying-In. In this area, our patients mostly consist of post NSD women carrying newborns and looking for a comfortable place to sit on because there are 3 mothers and 3 babies in one bed in a normal, good and non-toxic day. 5-6 mothers (times 2 because of the babies) in busy seasons. It was surreal for me at first but we learned to adjust that on the 2nd day, it's normal for us to ask "Ilan po kayo sa kama?" when looking for a place for a newcomer.

Our tasks consist of taking the vital signs of both mother and child, trying to keep the ward clean and orderly despite the overcrowding and the choir of crying babies, logging in names in different lists and logbooks, charting (but we're not allowed yet because we're officially newbies), injecting contraceptives in the afternoon to willing mothers and answering questions of relatives regarding billing procedures, birth certificates and so on.

There are no IV medications to prepare, only oral drugs to instruct. Occasionally, a patient will arrive with an IV but it's always for discontinuation so we get to do that also. The climax of the day is always the intramuscular injection of the contraceptive DMPA every afternoon. This definitely makes up for the lack of needlework within the shift.

In general, I think this is a good warm up for our 2 month duty in the ward. I look forward to the time I will get to roam around the place with absolute familiarity with the comings and goings of the institution like the way those senior trainees do. Imagine, they got to learn so much in such a short span of time.

I will too.

8 comments:

John said...

its a pretty descent job you've got. carry on. ^_^

Clarriscent said...

@John: Thank you! ^^,

ellashi0018 said...

hi! one of my friends were assigned at the OB ward of qmmc as well. She's just a month ahead of you i guess. She would tell me how toxic she was because there were too many patient and I'm too curious which one is so toxic, the OB or the Pedia ward since I was assigned at the pedia ward.. but i guess it all depends on a person.. so i'll just say have fun at QMMC... hehehehe

oh and you're a good writer^O^.. keep up the good work! all hands up for a fellow nurse like u:)

Clarriscent said...

@ ellashi0018:

Wow, thanks for all the compliments! :) I can't really judge since I've never experienced Pedia ward, although I heard they're having record breaking census these days because of the Dengue outbreak. However, it's amazing how the number of patients in our ward never ceases. The hospital can't seem to run out of pregnant women. Lol.

Thanks again for reading. Good luck and take care colleague! :)

Karl said...

i think the picture above is from fabella.

Clarriscent said...

@Karl: I think so too. Just got it off Google images.

Anonymous said...

is there a semi private room at fabella??and pede ba na ang bantay is 24/7 na nka bantay as in beside you na walang alisan??pede ab yun?

Clarriscent said...

@Anonymous:

I'm not sure about Fabella but I think all hospitals have semi private rooms with bantay 24/7. The thing is, they cost a lot and if you have that amount of money, I suggest you to go to a private hospital instead. As for the charity wards, 3-6 mothers in a single bed, visiting hours strictly implemented (the mother has to solely take care of her baby and herself), everyone has to deal with it.

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