Should I quit?

Yah! I heard other stories about PGH from my former CI. The nurse-patient ratio is really toxic! But what can we do? Its a public hospital. Well... if your not happy on what your doing or the situation your in, why not try to adjust on it for awhile. If still, you can't take it anymore, why not try some other hospitals? I know PGH offers good experience, but there are also other tertiary hospitals who can give the same or better work experience! Try to think about it! You have lots of options....

dear bebe,

two things i want to say first, congratulation for getting a job! second of all, i suggest you should stick with your job for now and make the best of it. i know from what you posted it, your first few day at work seems pretty crappy. but you know what? you got hired, and many many nurses tries to find a job and non of them got it but you. yeah, where ever you go, there is always a workplace where they have lazy, poor nurse staff..i bet those people has been there for a long time, and i am sure they been doing what they been doing before you even graduated from nursing! you will see a lot of it in a worse ways, but what can you do? it is a public hospital, and nobody seems to care. the best thing you can do is make yourself as an example, do your job, don't complain, prettend your cool, just always do the right thing, and maybe those old timers will see it. the bottomline? if you quit and it's not even a month since you started, it will look bad on your work record. if you really want to quit? maybe start applying from other places now.sorry to hear about your first few days at work. hang in there.

It's been 4 days since I started working as a contractual nurse in a DOH hospital. Prior to signing a contract with them, I had a 1-week OJT. In that short span, I observed that the nurses there poorly adhere to the standards of nursing practice. Most of the time, the medical supplies are inadequate. For example, they do NGT or foley catheter insertion without lubricant or at times use baby oil which is not at all water-soluble!!! Also, patient:nurse ratio is horrible. In their MS ward, usual number of patients ranges from 30-40 which are handled by only 2 nurses per shift. So there is no proper assignment of patients being done. Whoever has complain is your patient!

As a novice, I'm afraid that I'll be learning the wrong practices. Should I keep the job considering that others are doing volunteer work just to have an experience? Or should I quit and find another job that will give me a good training ground?

I will appreciate to hear your views. Thank you and God bless.

Hi! I assume you are referring to a DOH-gov't hospital? If that's the case, then I suggest do not expect a lighter load of work especially with the nurse-patient ratio because it'll never happen. It is a well-known fact all over the world that PI is a 3rd world country and gov't hospitals cannot afford to provide equipments and supplies for patients. That is why some of the hospitals ask the family to buy supplies outside the facility (eg. suction catheter, cotton balls, gauze etc.). I don't blame you if you want to quit but try to understand also that you volunteered in a gov't facility.

usually gov't hospitals in the PI are just like that. back when i was a student in a state university, we did our rle in gov't hospitals. our instructors obviously differentiated the "ideal" from the "real". in our nsg lab, we practiced the ideal, but at the bedside itself the real. "resourcefulness" is often drilled in our heads. i wouldn't go into the makeshift supplies i encountered(using other equipment, even your everyday household things!).

ps

one of the pet peeve we had was to do all those ncp for the patients(average 5 per student). submission was the next day. sheesh!:trout:

i emphatize with what you're feeling right now. you being new to the job can be overwhelming. but hear me out, when you decided to go into nursing, what's your purpose? i'm sure one of your answers would be to help people, right? well now you're in that position, a position to help. dont think of it as a way for just getting an experience so that you can go abroad, so that you can learn etc. not that those reasons are wrong, just maybe, maybe we could appreciate the things and opportunities better if we have a different mindset. as you have said, the nurse patient ratio is appalling, medical supplies are not adequate, but so what! do your job, smile at them, care for them, help them., there might come a time and i do hope and pray for this, you would be going abroad, living the dream... there would be no chance to give back. this is your chance. i hope i'm not being melodramatic or anything, but kabayan, there are a lot of people out there who have to contend with harder things than what we are facing right now. so i say, please dont quit.

.

tagalog not permitted per the tos of this forum. please use english only so that all can understand and read it.

thank you.

quitting the job because of the non-ideal setting and insufficient supplies in any hospital is considered quitting your purpose as a nurse who has a variety of roles and functions.

ok the hospital maybe lacking those stuff but it is not justifiable to overlook the patients who are there to be taken cared of. do what is just for them. use your resourcefulness and critical thinking in managing and/or compensating for this issue at hand. the hospitals may be practicing against the ideal but then they are trying to provide the service that are left for them to utilize. so if you saw a child drooling with secretions and is dyspneic, would you opt to leave the child dying for the supplies at hand are not that of the ideal (using a used suction cath and non-water based lubricants)? do your job as a nurse! it may not be ideal but then you may modify some practice so that you will minimize the trouble. still keeping in mind the principles of beneficence and nonmaleficence (though with some adjustments)

i am aware that most government hospitals experience this in their own ways. this is due to the fact that the bulk of patients overweigh the services that they may offer. we can't blame the patients, especially those who belong to the low socioeconomic area to be opting to utilize their services for money would always be an issue.

show the seasoned nurses that the new generation nurses have their own ways to make a difference. don't let the idea of not practicing with the ideal ruin (your) dreams of being an epitome of care. don't dwell deep on the insufficiency but rather formulate something to address the problem per se.

goodluck! aim high my fellow nurse! never overlook the main reason why we are here -- to care.

GOD BLESS!

Give yourself time, you are still in the period of adjustment. During this period you would only see the negative side of it. I am pretty much sure that there also positive things. Keep in mind that you are very lucky you've got a job rather than doing volunteer work.

Good luck. Keep going.

give yourself time, you are still in the period of adjustment. during this period you would only see the negative side of it. i am pretty much sure that there also positive things. keep in mind that you are very lucky you've got a job rather than doing volunteer work.

good luck. keep going.

i love that last sentence, mayflower, amen to that! beleive us, if you can survive that for six months to a year? then you will be ok.

I am envious of you for having a job in a country where unemployed nurses are aplenty and I count myself as one of those awaiting to be hired or even accepted as a volunteer nurse. Consider it as an opportunity to make a difference and gain something from the experience. You can make a difference and resourcefulness is a virtue of Filipino nurses. It is being able to rise above the situation unscathed and being able to take care of the patients in a way closest of the theories we learned in school. Go girl, you can do it and don't let the chance drift away. It is a good ground for learning. For as long as you retained and hold unto the basic concepts of our profession, you can declare yourself a winner at the end of your service in that facility. God bless and good luck.

Thank you all for your uplifting words. They really, really help... a lot!

I'm keeping the job although finding it hard to adjust. Since I'm in a government hospital, they practice functional style of nursing. Right now, as I'm the newest employee and we don't have nursing assistants, I am assigned to do the hardest, stinking job of wound dressing. At present, 5 patients that are confined in our floor have foot gangrene. The smell is truly disgusting and I'm sweating all over getting them done. I admit I still need a lot of prayers to put up with the job.

Nursing is indeed a tough job! You, seasoned nurses, are amazing beings! God bless you more!