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We’ve recently transferred to our new, insanely huge, insanely equipped, and insanely expensive hospital. I like that it’s insane, but whoa, I am not kidding when I say “huge”. It’s like one gigantic complex made up of three buildings. The hallways go on forever. And I mean FOREVER. I’ve only been inside one of the three buildings, and I haven’t even seen all the floors yet. I should’ve expected that though, since the whole place is located in GC, about 3 cities away from where I live. The way I see it, a block in GC would be equal to 2 or 3 “normal” blocks.
Anyway, I’ve been taking the MRT to GC for the past week. Commuting to GC isn’t much of a problem (even if I lose sleep waking up veeery early to beat the morning crowd), it’s getting home that drives me crazy! You can’t help but want to kill. Riding the train from Ayala/Guadalupe to Cubao during the rush hour is like going to war. The MRT’s a battlefield. Or a trash compactor. You’d feel way more comfortable in a sardines can.
I don’t think I can take commuting to GC once we start on shifting schedules, so I spent about two months looking for a nearer place to rent. I was lucky enough to find a room (at one of my friends’ house, oh yeah). I love that her unit’s number is 133, same as the number of my house. I’m moving out next weekend so I guess I have to start packing as early as now.
Bye bye family. I’ll be home on weekends maybe. I hope I don’t get separation anxiety.
I’ve been awake for almost 24 hours. I was on night duty and I got home around 3:00pm- a full 8 hours after the time I should have gone home which is supposed to be at around 7:00 or 8:00AM. I am so tired. My shift during that night was hell. Toxic, hectic, one big headache. And then on the very last hour of my duty, something happens. Something incredibly, massively stupid, unnecessary and unexpected.
I couldn’t concentrate on the work I had left to do. I was actually crying in the nurses’ station because everything was going horribly horribly wrong. All the little things just kept adding up, from non-answering doctors, non-infusing IV lines, blood transfusion problems, less than 40cc of urine output from a kidney patient (that’s roughly 2 tablespoons), freaking needles, and angry co-workers. If I mentioned them all I’m sure it’ll take up several paragraphs. No wonder a lot of the other nurses I knew wanted to quit. I got dumped with a garbage bag full of things-that-can-possibly-go-wrong-during-your-shift. I tried really hard to keep myself from crying but I couldn’t help it. It was so embarrassing having to cry like that. Thank God I didn’t do it in front of my patients.
It took me until 10AM to finish everything for the unit, then I had to go down to the ER which took up so much time processing because I literally had to go around the hospital wards looking for forms, which my own and about half of all the units didn’t have. Freaking forms! I finished all that, along with filing an incident report. That had me going back and forth from 1st to 2nd to 5th floor. So much paperwork. I didn’t eat breakfast or lunch anymore (who the hell could eat in a condition like that anyway). It took so long that I actually saw the nurses for the afternoon shift. Shit. I never want to have to go through another incident report again, or work on another night shift.
That’s it. That’s pretty much the latest thing in my life.
Alright. Lung Center application, a disappointment. Just like the shoes I was wearing when I went there- they were a half size too big and had heels, and it it was so difficult to walk that I had to change into flip flops (thank God I had enough foresight to bring a pair with me). There were more than four hundred people when we arrived, all waiting to be accepted as nurses-in-training. They only accepted three hundred. I wasn’t included, of course.
I have, however, heard from the others that they they were divided into three batches. The third one will start their training in June 2009. Yes, next year. Yes, it seems that you must register 7 months beforehand so you can train in the Lung Center, after which you must pay for more training and more miscellaneous fees. Many are willing to wait it out, and pay everything just to be able to train there- because it’s a specialty hospital that specializes in diseases related to the lungs- because it’s that special- because if you train and work there then you will be special too. Seriously though, it is a very prestigious hospital, a good tertiary teaching one, and it is the entire nation’s center for pulmonary diseases. I would love to work there.
I missed the review class. My parents weren’t very happy about it. I don’t see why they are though, with me prioritizing job and training applications over the review. I haven’t passed my application for the exam yet, and the review class is unlimited, meaning I can choose to attend (or miss) the classes any day I want. I can keep reviewing for as long as I want, whenever I want.
Feels like finding a job is impossible right now.
I am not giving up though. I am looking forward to more opportunities next year. I am going to take some risks, and every chance that comes my way.
This is my lucky star:
my inspiration
Saw this one at the Converse shop in Trinoma, taken with Gelo’s pretty camera phone after we came from the Lung Center and Red Cross. I don’t own a pair yet, but I will when I get my first paycheck.
Met up with Bayan too. There’s nothing like friends and Christmas (window) shopping to make up for a wasted morning.
white here, gray at the end of the day. bored in my seat.
It’s People’s Day today. People’s Day is a medical mission that they hold every month at the Heart Center. I wish I could be a nurse there. I spent half the day as one of the volunteers. There weren’t a lot of patients, probably because no one wants to go to the hospital during Christmas season. Who would want to find out that he might have diabetes just 15 days before Christmas? You’d want to postpone it until after you’ve finished all the holiday food. My task is to record their cholesterol results (in which you have to wait three minutes for the machine to read the data from their blood samples), and it gets so tedious that a few times every three minutes, I keep looking down at everyone’s shoes.
My friend Mia was wearing this beautiful pair of white nursing shoes that don’t make your feet like Ronald Mcdonald’s (which most of the nursing shoes we own do). Oh and I’ve learned never to wear a pair of shoes full of holes when in a very cold room.
I’ve been walking all day again. After volunteer work I went to the mall with my friend Bayan. My feet hurt like hell. I still love walking though. I’d walk around forever if I didn’t feel like I would injure myself. I’d walk all around town and from town to town..
