Volunteer Nurse

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Hi! I passed the NLE, NCLEX and IELTS,done with some the trainings (IVT,BLS,1st aid etc) submitted my resumes to hospitals and right now I am still UNEMPLOYED!:yeah: I am also a full time volunteer nurse in one the hospitals in Manila(mon-fri 6am- 2pm) and yes, I also paid just to get in to this hospital as a volunteer. I do not regret what I am doing right now, even if I know that it will not count as a work experience in my resume and even if sometimes I feel a little bad about some of the regular staff nurses who do nothing but pretend to be busy and take advantage of the volunteer nurses, I dont regret it because I am learning a lot, not just the nursing skills, nurse patient relationship but also learning more about myself; the kind of nurse I want to be... compasionate and competent.

A few days ago, I started a mini mission to help the poor patients In our ward, I am asking my friends to donate stuffs like gloves, cottonballs, masks, gauzes, digital thermometers (the hospital I am in is still using the mercury type), alcohols, liquid soaps, insytes, injections, even sterile water for injections etc. Wish me luck guys and I do hope that my mission will be a successful one. By the way if anyone here is from alabang, sucat, laspinas area and wants help in my mission just send me a pm.

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I think that you have the right idea. You seem like you're in the field because you have a compassion for nusring. I commend you for that, but why on earth would you want to have your friends donate all these item to the hospital for? Those items will add up and will be expensive in the end. The hospitals are making money off you who are accepting positions as volunteers. You've worked so hard for your education and yet they wont hire you as a nurse. You and your fellow friend should really be focusing on pushing your government to put an end to the slave labor. That's all you are is slave labor and slavery is wrong! I'm not putting you down, I just hate to see people being used and abused. Good Luck I hope you find a job soon!

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Hi again and thank you for your reply LatinaVNSRN :nuke: well I am asking help for the patients not for the hospital. sadly, here in the Philippines most government hospitals like the one I am in, dont have enough supplies. In the hospital I am volunteering at patients are really poor, they have to buy their own supplies. I mean that during IV drug push,their syringes get re used... For example if they need IV push at 8am for ceftriaxone and another ceftriaxone push at another time the injection will be re used and not discarded immediately it is reused over and over again because the hospital has limited or no supply at all and patients don't have money to buy again. sometimes patient's wounds dont get dressed for quite a long time because there are no gauzes or other supplies, there are only 2 mercury thermometers which are being shared by 20 patients ... those are just some of the reasons why I started to ask help from my friends. I am just asking for extra stuffs from my friends like if they have spare sterile gauzes and gloves or a bottle of alcohol... It is sad indeed but honestly, I feel like my mini mission will be much more useful and fruitful at the moment than persuading the government. They know our condition, they know what they should be doing but perhaps they are just like some of the staff nurses I mentioned in my first post... They are likewise pretending to be busy. Well thanks again, I really hope I can find a job too.

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That's so sad that patients have to reuse things...It just makes things unsanitary and also to mention, INFECTION CONTROL!!!!!.....Ouchhhhh people are prone to get sicker, and I can't think of the word that describes getting an infection while in the hospital....but that's what it is.....

Wow still using mercury thermometers....I thought it was bad enough having to use digital thermometers that take forever to read....Now when you say that they have to reuse syringes, do they autoclave them? How do they sanitize them to keep people from getting infections? How do you practice infection control there in the Philippines?

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Hi! I passed the NLE, NCLEX and IELTS,done with some the trainings (IVT,BLS,1st aid etc) submitted my resumes to hospitals and right now I am still UNEMPLOYED!:yeah: I am also a full time volunteer nurse in one the hospitals in Manila(mon-fri 6am- 2pm) and yes, I also paid just to get in to this hospital as a volunteer.
hi there white fairy Rn:nurse:,, can you PM the hospital you're volunteering right now? can i still apply:rolleyes:? thank you :redpinkhe
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Specializes in medical-surgical and critical care.
hi there white fairy Rn:nurse:,, can you PM the hospital you're volunteering right now? can i still apply:rolleyes:? thank you :redpinkhe

yup, me too..What's the name of your hospital? I'm interested in volunteer work while looking for a more stable job. I've passed all my exams and have trainings same as you do but sadly its really hard to be hired by hospitals this days.

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Me too. Can you please give me a pm about the hospital you are volunteering? Thanks in advance. :p

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If it isn't such a bother... I am interested in volunteering too... can you PM me to what hospital you are training to? Thanks

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Specializes in NICU.

same here. can you please PM me the hospital? thanks! =)

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That's so sad that patients have to reuse things...It just makes things unsanitary and also to mention, INFECTION CONTROL!!!!!.....Ouchhhhh people are prone to get sicker, and I can't think of the word that describes getting an infection while in the hospital....but that's what it is.....

Wow still using mercury thermometers....I thought it was bad enough having to use digital thermometers that take forever to read....Now when you say that they have to reuse syringes, do they autoclave them? How do they sanitize them to keep people from getting infections? How do you practice infection control there in the Philippines?

Infection control for most clinics means that you put up a curtain or spray alcohol.

If you're shocked at this practice then you should also know that some hospitals wash gloves for re-use by doctors.

Yes.. latex gloves used in surgery and covered in blood are washed in extremely hot water, then sanitized, re-powdered and packaged to be used again.

Yippee..

I hope I never have to be admitted for surgery while I'm living here.

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It's sad but it's all definitely true! If I didin't have small kids I would never go back to the Philippines to study because it's humiliating to see the patients being treated that way. Way back in the 90's where I was a medical technology student, I've seen some pricking needles being autoclaved because we ran out. We even ran out of alcohol to clean patients skin before pricking them, got to shell it out from our pockets. To think it's on one of those regional tertiary hospital...how sad could that be?

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Infection control for most clinics means that you put up a curtain or spray alcohol.

If you're shocked at this practice then you should also know that some hospitals wash gloves for re-use by doctors.

Yes.. latex gloves used in surgery and covered in blood are washed in extremely hot water, then sanitized, re-powdered and packaged to be used again.

Yippee..

I hope I never have to be admitted for surgery while I'm living here.

That is terrible. Before the days of disposable gloves- surgeons reused gloves. They were not latex and they were sterilized properly. I can understand being poor, but it is inexcusable not to practice care that was new in the 1800's. Autoclaves are basic basic pieces of equipment. The hospitals must have autoclaves and the gloves could be properly sterilized.

If a hospital can't have this basic piece of equipment they shouldn't be doing surgery.

PS Thermometers can be resterilzered also.

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