potatomasher

This should remind us of a wake up call that it's already becoming too much. Fresh grad nurses are not cows that they can harness to "run" their hospitals while the paid staff nurses do nothing. Well, not all but some. I had the same experience too while being a "trainee" for a local public hospital. The staff was sleeping the whole night shift while I administered medications, did IV follow-ups and did other nursing interventions. In the morning she woke up, brushed her teeth and then waited for the next shift to accept her endorsement. PNA wake up please. Is there a code of ethics too for this?

Thanks for sharing your information about this! :-) Jan

Hello all! It seems to me that hospitals in the Philippines are taking advantage of the nursing surplus. Every 6 months or so, there are thousands of nurses getting their degrees. A few of them get into hospitals, and if they do they get stuck in what I called the nursing volunteer limbo. Worse if it's only nurse trainee program. I heard that some foreign employers don't take credit of the volunteer/trainee nurse experience for qualifications. They want a paid job. So why can't hospital issue a certificate nurse volunteer staff? I see this kind of exploitation. The nurse volunteer works the same hours, the same liabilities and the same risks as that of the staff and yet they don't get any stipend let alone an allowance for their efforts and what's worse is that the hospital will only issue some sort of training certificate that in fact the nurse volunteer HAD functioned like the responsibility of the staff. Is there any organization that could address this "minute" and unspeakable exploitation? Should PNA address this problem? If not, what organization? Jan

Hello all, This coming November, I am planning to spend some time in Malaysia for vacation. I am right now working as a volunteer nurse in a local hospital (which means I am not bound by any contract whatsoever). Do I need to present a proof to the immigration officer in NAIA just to make sure I will come back to the Philippines? Last time when my aunt, en route to Hong kong in NAIA, she was not allowed to leave the country because she did not have any travel document, or some kind of authorization that she will travel outside the country. She is nurse working in the government hospital by the way. Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated! Thanks J.

Hi all, Does Saipan BON accept cash when renewing your license? Another thing is that I am planning to endorse me license to New York. Do you think I would benefit from sending the application for renewal and another application for endorsement as well in just one mail? I am confused where to start when I endorse my license to New York. Hilfe! J

85.4% NLE 75 items for NCLEX I think there is no exact correlation between the the NCLEX and NLE...I knew a lot of people who have high averages in the NLE but flunked the NCLEX. The NCLEX is more accurate in gauging the knowledge of the examinee because it customizes the exam questions for the examinee through critical tinking questions...the NLE is just a pen and paper exam and thus fixed.

Well human rights is quite broad. I think having laws pertaining to harassment of nurses in the hospital by patients or folks is a must. Nurses do need protection. And nurses are not superhumans that can take up any kind of insult. They have feelings. I was irked by an incident lately. A folks of the patient got irritated because the nurse trainee prescribed the betadine paint instead of betadine solution. So here goes the folk of the patient looking for the nurse who prescribed the medication (thankfully she was in another area). And then started saying bad things. I mean they have the right to demand but not give insults. Just because these people pay for their healthcare they cannot just insult any person in the healthcare team. So I think by having an anti-harassment law will untilmately give a check and balance to this issue.

Hello! I would like to know if there is a Philippine law that protect nurses from the unnecessary harassments by patients and/or their families in the hospital. I am quite aware that are nurses we should accept what patients and their families express to you but what if try are already crossing the line and verbally hitting you below the belt? Thanks Jan

If this bill passes and becomes a law, it will be a big blow for nurses. I think the best solution to the vast migration of nurses (and doctors), is to give them a decent pay. Why not go to the root of the problem and find a solution there? It's just easy for our lawmakers make this and that bill without ever thinking and considering the implication and the complications as well. Bottom line: Give nurses better pay and we'll stay! :-)

Your school is not crazy or something. Just abide with the rules. It's part of the discipline which will come handy someday. No matter how ridiculous it seems, take is as part of the training. As what one of my college professors said: "Forgive me if I made your day gloomy, but it's part of the training." And sure he was 200% right.

Well, nurses who are desperate will go to other countries even though they're quite aware that their status of work there will be much lower than what they earned in college. Sorry but it's not my cup of tea...I'd rather wait for some better opportunities than jumping into some "dangerous" waters.

I don't mean any offense on the Filipino culture but I do think that culture plays a big role to this kind of behaviors in the clinical area. I have noticed that these Sairy Gump nurses get insecure of the nurse trainees' potential that they throw all sorts of bad stuff at them. Sort of crab mentality issue I think. And I am not surprised that the nurses who do this are the ones who are still working here in the Philippines...stuck for good. The best and good ones are already gone in other countries. We are left of rotten apples.

I know everybody knows about these kind of nurses who feel like some kind of god/goddesses of the ward--unfriendly to trainees, unapproachable, treating their trainees like slaves or cows, blaming their trainees for the mistakes they made, gossiping, and other unprofessional acts. What I hate about most is that they disrespect their nursing trainees. thinking that they belong to the pedestal and they could easily crush the people under them...insecure perhaps? How do you feel about them? What steps have you taken to tactfully counteract their behavior while maintaining a professional contact?

The highest BP I've read from a patient was 210/130... :S

Flash cards are great. It comes very handy when you are going to a long trip or something (even commuting back home). However aside from flashcards, I would also suggest you get those all Q & A books (with rationale) and answer them. It really helps even when you just answer 100 questions per day as it gauges your improvement in answering NCLEX-RN questions. :-)

I empathize with you... I made a drug error last week, not by commission but by omission. I wasn't able to give a dose of due antibiotic to one of the patients. It would have been still ok because the antibiotic could still be given as long as the last dose's peak level doesn't come down. But the bad thing is that the patient's mother found out about it, and made a scene about the petty incident. As a saying goes, "Past is past." And you should get over with it and not keep punishing yourself from the mistake. It's part of the learning process to make mistakes sometimes and always remember that we are humans! We are not robots made into precision and accuracy. We are prone to mistakes sometimes no matter how careful we are.

I hate preceptors and clinical instructors yelling at me. It's a sure sign of an unprofessional conduct. One time I was in the CCU taking care of a patient on strict monitoring. I was doing a procedure and then my clinical instructor comes inside the room and then observes me. Instead of helping me doing the procedure, he just stared at me and then yelled bad things...like "Do you want to go back to your fundamentals of nursing classes?" Such an insult...and in a plain but stern reply, I said: "Sir, this is my first time performing this procedure." And then he came out of the room and had another nurse help me out.

My nursing career dream is to be a member of the UN/WHO and be sent to remote places in Africa and educate and help the people there. Then I'm ready to die after that...because to me that is a life well lived! :-)

Hello, I am planning to travel for a short vacation outside the Philippines. I am a registered nurse but as of now I am not employed by any hospital nor by other institutions. One time an aunt of mine who went for a vacation in Hong Kong, was stopped by the immigration in NAIA because she is a nurse in a public hospital and does not have a travel permit. Does that rule applies to me too? If it is, do I need to get a travel permit from what government agency? Thanks for your advice and suggestions! J

My grandmother wanted to be a nurse but she ended up being a teacher. But out of 7 aunts, 4 of them are nurses, then my mother followed their footsteps and recently finished her nursing education...she was 48. I have 3 cousins who are in the nursing school right now... Some of my distant relatives are nurses too. So we are some sort of "nursing" family. LOL...

I was the secretary of the trainees and it was not endorsed to me that I should check the attendance. I was just totally surprised that the nurse trainer was angry because of the low attendance in the mass. Think about this...some of us were on night shifts. Others were in the afternoon shifts...so it was not very logical to let them attend the late morning mass.

The hospital where I am doing my training right now has that kind of system on how to deal with absences. In a case of an excused absent (sickness, emergency situations etc), the ratio if make up duty is 1:1. While for unexcused absents, it's 1 unexcused absent is equal to three make up duties. :S The weird thing is that the nurse trainer was kind of angry when the ALL of the trainees did not attend the "Thanksgiving Mass". Is it really a requirement? I was like "duh"? Now she's going to give 3 days duty to those who didn't attend the mass...and in fact she doesn't any proof who were present there because attendance was not checked.

Kudos to the US officials who are now very strict in arresting and deporting illegal immigrants. It's quite unfair for those who got into the eye of the needle just to get their green cards legally...This is justice.

I think the solution to this is getting into the root of the problem...that is, 1. Creating a more rigid screening for incoming nursing students and nursing undergraduates (like they take a qualifying exam at the end of the semester--if they pass, they proceed to the next level, if not then they are advised to leave the nursing program). 2. One-take board exam policy. It will lessen the large influx of nursing graduates every year and set higher standards on nursing education.

Do you think other hospitals out there are taxing so much of our nurses with the volunteer scheme? I don't know if you've encountered these but one hospital in my city has this post graduate practicum for nurses. It only lasts for 2 months plus one's ability to function as a nurse is very limited. I've read in the objectives of this so called programs that the aim of it is to enhance the gap of skills nurses have from the new BSN (the AHSE) program. The worst part is that trainees are made to pay a certain heavy amount. Not to mention the miscellaneous fees that come with this training. Any thoughts about this?