Nurses are Mac Gyvers.....

[male_nurse22]

filipino nurses are macgyver ( american adventuretelevision series, produced in the united states and canada, about the laid-back, extremely resourceful secret agent ) one example i remember while having my rotation in the orthopedic ward where instead of using accurately weighted sand bags we use hollow blocks and stones to pull those stings.:chuckle do you thinks its safe?

one thing that is very frustrating is we spend precious time regulating iv fluids, large volume of medications and taking vital signs of just one patients while we still have 20 patients more to attend to.

when i was a student i remember this patient he was uneasy scratching every part of his body and you can smell his body odor i ask him to take his bath but he complained that theres no bathroom in the hospital and not enough water:(.

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one thing that bothers me is that some hospitals we do reuse syringes ( we label them). does your hospital do this? sometimes post operative patients don't receive enough blanket to keep them warm that sometimes we receive them in the ward shivering having cold extremities:(.

i'm not generalizing here just want to here you're observation and your comments or suggestions about our nursing practice here in the philippines because i think that we are far beyond.

[Daly City RN]

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When I was a student nurse way back in the late 1970's I was admired by my clinical instructors and fellow student nurses for being a "McGyver". I was very imaginative and improvised more than a few things when supplies were short, or worse, were non-existent.

Imagine my surprise when I became a new RN here in the United States in the early 1980's, I tried to improvise something for a simple sitz bath. I was expecting for a similar praise that I used to receive when I was still a student nurse in the Philippines when I was reprimanded for an unauthorized improvization. I was told: "If we don't have it here in the unit, go to the CPD! (Central Supply Dept.)"

Message to the Filipino nurses who may work in the U.S.A. someday or some other industrialized countries: What may be normally acceptable in the Philippines may not be acceptable in other countries, or you may even be put legally liable for your action/s that results in a patient's harm. Most of the time supplies are available in modern acute care hospitals in the U.S.

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[RNHawaii34]

Gosh, where I work, we have to order supplies, if we don't have it we have to order it from the supplier. other than that, we have rules, and orders to follow, even if just a warm compress. trust me, they are very strict here. You don't want to lose your license just because you want to do short cut, or improvise.

[wishiwereanurse, BSN, RN]

An improvisation that annoyed me the most is using popsicle stick to measure cvp.