Operating Room

Once again, we were reshuffled. You know what? I’m thinking of a new word to describe what my college does to us: rerererererereshushushuffle. Haha. Whatever. So yeah, basically, majority of the people in my section are strangers to me. Likewise in my group. On the other hand, I know two people in my group.

Just a side note, in our registration form, the original schedule for my hospital duty is from Wednesday to Friday, that’s why when I learned that it was misprinted last Monday, it got me really annoyed. It turned out I have Saturday classes (my hospital duty is from Thursday to Saturday). My rest days are Wednesdays and Sundays. It sucks, right?

So, our first assignment for this semester is in the Operating Room. Luckily for us, we are assigned in a tertiary private hospital. That means, we could get more sophisticated cases that need millions of instruments. Yesterday, when we got in school, some of the girls in my group were in school uniform, some were wearing their duty uniform and the others were wearing their OR/DR suit. Most of the males were wearing black leather shoes (including me), others were wearing white. We were at a lost. It was really funny. When our CI arrived, it was finally cleared to us. We have to wear our school uniform and once we get inside the OR, that’s the only time we are allowed to wear our OR/DR suit.

Our CI turns out to be good. She’s not scary at all, sometimes, she even throws jokes at us. We were given a tour around the hospital, and once we were inside the OR, she gave us most of the information that we need to know. She taught us how to scrub our hands and arms (the faucets were amazing, they were knee operated, haha), wear sterile gowns, closed gloving, serving gowns and gloves to surgeons. She also introduced to us the strange instruments used in the OR. Two instruments almost look the same, but when you look at them properly, you’ll find out that they are different. It’s crazy. Plus the names are not easy to remember, in my opinion. She also taught us how to serve these instruments to the surgeon. She taught us other things too, but I guess, I’ll stop here.

So today… our CI told us that some of us would already take in the fray. Guess who was the lucky guy who took part in the fray? Meh. LOL. I was the scrub nurse (well, the assistant of the scrub nurse, or whatever). Since the case was a major one (cholecystectomy or the removal of gall bladder), I had a partner (circulating nurse) but what my partner does is very different from what I do. My tasks were to give whatever the surgeons need (e.g. instruments), make sure the instruments don’t fall, and help in holding retractors (which is very tiring especially if you have to hold it for long periods of time, plus, you’re standing from the start ’till the end). I think I did many things soo wrongly, but my CI said for a first timer, I did great. Yay? At first, I was not so anxious, but when I started to do things so wrongly, I got terrified. Good thing, the surgeons have a long patience. I wasn’t shouted. LOL. The surgery took around 2.5 hours. Yeah, I was standing for 2.5 hours, actually, more than that because after the operation, I still had to clean the instruments that the surgeons used. I think I washed more than 50 instruments. LOL. Overall, it was fun and crazy and I can’t wait to get a new case… basta hindi lang ako masigawan. Haha.

A Big Skip

Here are the things that I should publish here soon about the first semester and my semestral break.

• An evaluation of my four clinical instructors
• Reviews of my subjects
• My semestral break

The Rest…

The past three weeks was sort of rough to me. Both expected and unexpected things happened. And in this post, I’ll try to summarize what happened during that three weeks.

September 22. This day marks the first day of my group’s morning shift. We had a new instructor, well, just for this day. Dunno what’s the reason. I had the worst patient ever! My patient really annoyed me. My patient was already for discharge. I had to make a METHOD as part of my SOAPIE (charting)… and make sure the patient don’t get out of the hospital without paying. So… the patient was strong enough to stroll around the hospital and I was asking him to go back to his room. While following him, he told me “Bakit mo ako sinusundansundan?!” It shocked me, because I didn’t expect to be told like that. In the end, I followed his SO.

September 23. Three got late. They were not able to catch the bus. It was hilarious, it was the first time someone got late. I was the leader for the day. I didn’t handle any patient.

September 24. Ms. Bortusa didn’t get to ride the bus. LOL. She was late. My patient for the day has acute gastritis. Today was my first time to give bolus IV med. It was, uh, fun! LOL. Uh, that’s all for today. We also did records review for our case study.

September 29. My last patient for the rotation’s admitting diagnosis was Dengue Fever. But when I handled the patient, he was already fine (in my opinion). I had the chance to give another IV med. Yey!

September 30. We didn’t handle a patient to give way to our oral defense of our case study and final evaluation. The defense went well, again, in my opinion. Plus, I think I did my best… but it was the other group who produced the best case study for this rotation. I was not expecting much from my group’s case study, given the fact that two of my group mates are horrible. Hehe. But still, I felt sad about it because I gave my best, but what I gave was not enough. Yeah, whatever. As for our final evaluation, I really didn’t review anything for it, as our instructor told us not to review. It turns out it was a bit hard. But I was still able to pass it with flying colors. Haha.

Our group gave our instructor a shirt. Well, it was the girls who picked it. They were eager to buy him something. You know, they like him. LOLZ. They were also able to convince him to go with us later that evening. What did we do? Well, we had fun. We went to a karaoke bar and they sang.

October 01. I finally got back home. Good thing, it was a holiday.

October 06 and 07. Supposed to be, we don’t have any classes since our duty was over, but we had to go to school because of our make-up classes. Boo.

October 09 to 11. The dreaded finals. Sad. Micro was good. NCM was hard, I’m expecting my grade to fall. Haha. Pharacology was fine… well, it was easier than midterms.

Sorry. I feel so sabaw tonight.

The Surge: Medical Surgical

September 09. Our final rotation has finally begun. As what I had expected, most of the girls in my group are in lurve with our CI. It’s so gross when I have to listen with their “girl talk.” Because it was an orientation day, we didn’t get to hold a patient. Our CI gave our requirements for the rotation. God, when will this end? But the requirements he gave us are lighter compared to those in CHN. Towards the end of our duty, we were informed that our midterm exam in Nursing Care Management (NCM) was postponed. They didn’t want to give the reason of the suspension. It’s really unfair, I told myself. If they have the right to postpone it, then we have the right to know why. Right? Oh, well, news flies so fast… I heard that the reason was because… well, that’s not for public consumption. Instead of having an exam tomorrow, we’ll be in teh hospital. And oh, mind you, the hospital is sooo far from my home.

After our duty, my groupmates almost forced me to eat isaw. They told me it’s yummy, but no, thanks.

September 10. I had my first patient for this rotation. Since there was a scarcity with patients, I teamed up with one of the best students in our group, well, actually, he was the one who asked me to be his partner. LOL. The patient we handled had pneumonia! And the patient was like 80+. It was crazy. Haha. We had to talk very loud just so the patient would hear us. Oh, we had a hard time getting the patient’s temperature. There was a gap in his axillary, so the thermometer would slide. Haha. We also received a bad news today, our midterm exam was rescheduled tomorrow. Now, how nice is that?!

Had Jjamppong for my pre-dinner. It was my first time to eat Jjamppong. Oh, you eat soup and you don’t drink it. Haha.

September 11. The proctors for our exam were sooooo paranoid for the whole period. LOL.

September 12. Our midterm exam for Pharmacology was super hard. Hopefully, I’ll pass the exam. Me thinks the computation part was my savior! w00t!

September 15. My patient for the day has pneumonia. She’s 94 years old if I’m not mistaken. Her significant other (SO) was sooo annoying. We chose her for our case study, kase yan lang yung matinoing i-case study. Bwiset. LOL. The vehicle we used to get back to school was some sort of a van. Yung parang pang-service. Weird. But it was faster than the bus.

September 16. I got a perfect score for our first quiz. Rejoice! After our test, I presented my report: Myocardial Infarction (heart attack). Thanks to WikiPedia. I dared to use it, well, the Wiki article about MI is full of resources so I decided to use it. My groupmates were laughing the whole time. LOL. It’s because I was pronouncing the word “beta” the right way. Whatever. Well, I’m used to it. Wala sa akin yun. There was a scarcity with patients again. My patient for the day has an admitting diagnosis of Diabetes Melitus Type II with Dehydration. I teamed up with one of my groupmates for our case study. Yep, we’ve shifted to another patient for our case study. Mas magandang case kase. I had the chance to perform capillary blood glucose (CBG) monitoring. I had to prick the patient… the patient got scared with me. LOL. So by the time we had to administer rapid acting insulin, the patient was refusing. So, it was my partner who injected it.

The bus and the school service-like vehicle were missing in action. We rode an old coaster. It was — as what the people in the college call it — air-continuous. LOL. For the whole ride, we could feel that the coaster was vibrating, thanks to the bad condition of the road. We were laughing during the whole trip. Some even dared to say how they hate the coaster. Buti na lang, mabait si Manong Driver. Uh, my girl groupmates are getting into my nerves. Di pa rin matapos-tapos ang girl talks nila. And it became worse than ever. They kinda like the CI of another school. The thing is, kabatch nung CI namin yung CI na yun. Whatever.

September 17. The reporting continued. The first reporter has the P&F syndrome. He was constantly saying “pever” instead of “fever,” “pat” instead of “fat,” and “pamily” instead of “family.” I guess, you can imagine how hilarious and pathetic it was. The next one was sooo boring. She was reading her report… and she can’t even pronounce the words correctly. Parang first time pa lang nya binasa yung report. Then, there was also Ms. Bortusa who was making her requirements, Drug Study and Nursing Care Plan (NCP) during the reporting. Our CI told her to listen but she still continued with it. Then, our CI started to ask questions… there was this question that we cannot answer. He said “Napaka-passive nyo naman.” I was shocked. I never expected him to say that, because he was so good to us. After the reporting, he said “Next time, I want you to listen to the reporters and don’t do your requirements while the reporting is going on.” Obviously, we hit the limit.

September 19. Why I’m always the one who gets laughed at during our Pharmacology class? Mukha raw kasi akong bata. Haha. I’m not getting annoyed, really. Actually, I laugh with them but it would be better if they stopped it. And oh, finally, after 238723472 years, our Family Case Analysis (FCA), our big and tedious requirement for the past rotation is finally done. We’ve passed our final copy. w00t!

Rotation #4

Our final rotation for this semester will be Medical Surgical. That’s where you’ll see, I guess, the worst cases (aside from the ICU). The patients there have something like tuberculosis, emphysema, dengue, etc. I’ve heard that our CI is good. Well, actually, I’ve already met our CI during my summer classes. He was one of my instructors back then.