nursing is not for everyone

a student-nurse approached me and asked if i could be interviewed. i asked, "about what?" he said they were tasked to ask a nurse five questions. having gone through that back in college, i said yes. [below is the text of the interview]. after the interview, i was brought in deep thoughts, recalling what brought me into this profession, and then i found myself comparing it to how student-nurses and their families are motivated into taking the nursing path these days.

the process or reasons for deciding which path to pursue in life is influenced by many factors or the lack of it. it can be affected by deep thoughts for self, some for shallow and temporary reasons, by family's stature or economic prowess, or temporally by ambitions.

the scheduled local nursing board examination in the philippines will test a record number of hopefuls at 80,000. being a nurse and seeing the decline in the quality of health care delivery in the country, i can't see myself being happy about it. while another flood of new nurses will be set, less and less of them get hired and less and less opportunity is given to those who have obtained their licenses before this batch of hopefuls.

blame this to the lack of regulation by authorized agencies on the new schools and review centers, and the lack of qualifying tools the schools are implementing on their students.

many hopefuls are themselves motivated by the fact that nurses abroad are paid filthy bucks and they believe nursing as their vehicle to going abroad and obtaining riches. while half of the hopefuls are not the ones motivated by this fact but by or their families are. their family/parents are investing on them because they believe egging their sons or daughters into taking up nursing will bring them riches and give them a better life. couple these domestic motivation by the schools and review centers' own motivation of milking money from these hopefuls, seeing that student-nurses are one of the hottest commodities or produce to milk money from.

the result? a decline in the standards of education, a non-qualified student-nurse, a non-qualified review center, a non-qualified nurse, a non-qualified staff. because there are so many nursing schools now, but less hospital, less exposure for student-nurses are given. there are even schools which just pride themselves of having a state-of-the-art laboratory to augment the lack of exposure the student-nurses should be having through their affiliate-hospitals. students need exposure, they need qualified professors and instructors, but students too need to be qualified if we are to hope for a better health care simply because nurses are the frontliners. we can't rely our health care on non-qualified ones.

i feel for this profession, i have seen how the foundation of this profession is fast declining. i feel for this profession, i have seen how many staff there are who do not even know how to insert catheter. i feel for the profession, i say the governing body of this profession should do something. i feel for this profession, and i say the authorized agencies should regulate the nursing schools and review centers that do not perform well and do not have qualified facilities and faculty. i feel for this profession, and i say families and hopefuls themselves should qualify themselves and understand that like any other profession, nursing is not for everyone. frankly, if we don't do something, we all shall absorb the consequences of this and it will definitely be not something everyone can take. while diseases and illnesses affect everyone and that access to health is for every one [which is not the case here], nurses is and will not be for everyone, so let's not hang it by the ropes.


What is profession for you?
Books will tell you that profession is a discipline that you acquire after completing what is required of it, but I believe whether you’re a doctor, a nurse, a teacher or a pharmacist, it is a vocation - a call to service.

What is your concept of nursing?
Nursing for me is a vocation, a noble opportunity to provide care in a professional manner. Nowadays, you can be a nurse but you may not be able to practice it. There is the opportunity but you may not be able to practice it.

Why did you take up nursing?
Because I look good in white. Honestly, I did not plan for this to happen. During our time, very few people take up the course. Everyone was in the band wagon of taking PT. Lining up to enroll in PT will take you the whole day, but not with nursing. You can finish your enrollment in an hour or two. I tried to enroll in PT but the enrollment closed out on me so I was advised to enroll in nursing by the academic affairs and to just transfer to PT after the second semester. That was the reason I got into nursing, at first. But, I fell in love with the course or profession if you’d call it. So, that's it.

What are the good qualities of a nurse?
I think a good nurse should first and foremost be nonjudgmental, without bias. Because if you’re not, you will procrastinate and in doing so, it will hinder you from practicing your profession efficiently and more effectively. Next, you should be a good listener. The practice of nursing is taxing, but it should not devoid you of the importance of listening to your client’s needs. There are identified and unidentified needs, and listening to your clients will help you cover them all.

I also believe that a good nurse should always be a student of the profession. Having said that, a good nurse should always try to learn more to afford your self and your clients the best possible nursing care you can provide, at least from your end.

Being a nurse requires that you are strong and patient enough to deal with anything and everything you’ll be faced with in this practice. If you have those qualities, I believe you are good to go into becoming a better nurse than you are today, even if you’re just a student-nurse, at least for now.

What is the best part about being a nurse?
More than the opportunity to get compensated for the profession, I think the best part is still the satisfaction and the fulfillment it gives you when your client appreciates you for the comfort and care you provide them; when you see them happy and contented with what you did, when you are able to provide comfort and then they thank you for it, for me, that’s the best part of it. It is an indicator that you are doing good and that you have answered a call, your profession.

Interviewed by Karl Laurence C. Valeña

pseudo pedestal

I have been out long… and in long battle too… against me.

Let me just tell you about a little of what I seem to realize and ?failed to realize about me.

Though already married and yet without a child, I wanted to always be the one providing for my parents and extend this to my siblings and their family. I usually am the outspoken in our family. When asked, I try not to sugar-coat my disappointment; I freely tell them what I feel about things. Because for me, family is family and nothing should be kept secret. I give communication a high regard. I have always thought that I must forgo what my loved ones would feel when the things I am going to say do not agree with them, because I believe it will ultimately yield good things for them.

But, this is not always the case. I realized that I have issues. Issues that make me unpleasant to them. Extending help is a great endeavor. Communication is really of prime importance. But, using communication as a way of forcing your loved ones to duplicating what you do is wrong. I wanted them to be like me! This is wrong… so wrong. I am already abusing communication and I am now using it as a tool to disrespect them. Wanting others to be like your self would be robbing them off of their uniqueness and disrespecting them as a person, and also your uniqueness and respect for self.

I thought what I was doing is good. I thought I am doing the right thing. I am becoming what I do not intend myself to be. Extending help does not give me any right to be disrespectful of them. I thought providing gives me power. I realized I was just sugar-coating the bad with it. Now, I know I am wrong and I must go down from my pseudo-pedestal before i lose the very people i treasure and strive to keep. I rule no one.

I am a dishonor to the noble act of helping.

I am sorry.

Stop complaining and sip your fave coffee

It’s been four months. Yeah, that’s a long hiatus from blogging. Thing is, nothing actually changed in my schedule – I am still swamped and more swamped. I would have written a lot from four months ago to now, but just could not finish them; from coffee stuff to general life experiences as it is, but again, I could not finish them.

I am tired of running this routine daily of waking up, coffee, prepping myself, eating and doing a little of walking and then going back to work and then sleeping, but I cannot complain, not now and not ever. I am grateful still that while this has been becoming a routine with exhausted personal growth from this discipline, I would still say I have one of the better situations there is in our country. I have a job, can eat more than usual and still have a buying power. God is really good, all the time.

Sometimes, when I find myself on the brink of complaining, I would look at the situation of those with lesser power than I have and then I’d find the solace that I am still better and should not complain. I am thinking that when I start complaining and look at those who’s been, what I would call, more successful, the more I would be looking down myself and complain until it would not anymore be healthy and I will just end up pitying myself.

This is just me at this very instant, and I guess I can call myself lucky still. I have this site, I have friends, I have jobs, and I have my life to still work with. Life remains a work in progress so long as you value it and strive to make it better; for when you declare you’re done with it, then you’re killing it and yourself.

Sip your favorite coffee and enjoy progressing your life further.

Sneaking…

Been through yet another bout of busy schedule. Long days, short sleep – and how I just wish I could be done with it quickly. But no! Reality rubbed in my face, I am stuck with this. Gone are the days when I really command my schedule and find time to play some ball. I cannot even attend to my blogging!!!

I envy those who are really good in managing their time. I must admit it, I am not good at it. Because whatever spare time I have, I wanted it devoted to me sleeping (me looking at bed), there in the bed.

I guess I need to fix myself. I can't find the motivation to do more things with what little spare time I got, I wish I could. Am I sloth creature? Man, it is a sin!

The only thing not sacrificed amidst this time management debacle is my coffee break. Still, I wish I could push myself to do more…

security blanket, what works for you?

I've been very busy lately and it hacked me off my time for the blog. And, during the stretch of the week that passed, coffee's been my bud. Yummy.

At duress, admit it or not, we look for help or boost, either from someone we know or from rituals we know to keep us moving – believers pray for guidance and help, married people go to their spouses for some advices and comfort, others perform their ritual or mantra, while some others do a combination of two or all.

Imagine yourself not being able to do your ritual or not having that someone to keep you going. Not that you've been too dependent or won't be able to accomplish the task without your ritual or significant someone, but that you won't be the same. In my own practice, I've seen surgeons do their rituals. Shhh… some lay themselves on the OR table in their theatre minutes or an hour before the theatre is prepped, and the more common is that they eat a lot, while some just listen to their music.

People need to be in tip-top shape when doing their thing, lest they'd perform differently or even less. We probably saw many movie highlights where we see the performance dynamics of the lead actor in a movie who is expecting someone from the audience and finding out that their significant someone not being there, until finally seeing that special someone in the audience or the bleachers and, whoala! - from making a so-so performance to being in the zone. It gives us the needed push to beat ourselves and show our significant someone we're really good at what we do, in basketball, in singing, dancing or anything we do.

Call it just a mind set, but really sometimes we just fold and find ourselves not in our zone without our rituals and significant someone. Life in and itself is a wonder and it makes me think that perhaps we never really shed off the baby in us. I did not mean it to be something negative – just a pure observation and I may be wrong. We need a sort of security blanket. Babies and the young ones do and I guess that can be said also of us who need something and someone before performing our tasks.

As for me, I do a combination of two. I could not start the day without the kick of caffeine, and more of it when busy doing things. I start and end the day actually with it. Call me an addict, whatsoever, but it works for me. More importantly, I pray. It makes me stay collected. I am a believer and I'd say there is an All-Great Power over all things and it's to HIM I come and would come first for wisdom and help.

So, what works for you?

In Love with Life

In love with life?

Taking a break from the coffee salvo here, I noticed this line just recently from a mouse-over quote on an avatar in my yahoo mail home. A short but striking line – well, at least to me. I asked myself, am I? Well, yes I am and why wouldn’t I be?

I am a nurse by profession and my profession calls for the preservation of life and taking care of it. With it, I am exposed back from being just a student-nurse to being a full-pledged professional nurse to the stages of life and its wonders - (I believe in God and I have Him to thank for this wonder) - from conception, the fertilization of ovum of the female by male, to the formation of embryo, to becoming a fetus, to labor and delivery, through human’s growth and development, be it normal and abnormal – or what allied medical sciences call as physiological and pathological stages of growth and development.

Simple to complex

Life’s direction starts as a simple process to a more complex one. Notice that as life goes, we become more and more concerned about complicated things. Pleasure is the general rule of life. As a very young individual, we only concern ourselves with food and elimination. Heck, it is not even our problem but the ones taking care of us. And, as we grow older, we become concern of many more things which define our pleasure. We look for play and leisure, then companionship, accomplishment of tasks. At our productive age, our existence becomes more defined on the utilization of our talents to continue to have our pleasure. We work to live and have our life. Then, we reap in retirement what we sow during the majority of our existence – relaxation and pleasure. We then elude complications, but we become more concerned about the people around us.

Complications

Life is not without complications. Very early in life, the problems posed on us are more of the bodily functions that define food and elimination. It is critical that we are fed only by clean and palatable food for young; otherwise, we develop elimination problems such as diarrhea and constipation – and with it develop infection. Infection and diarrhea must at all times be prevented since young individuals have more fluid percentage of the body than adult individuals. The logic in that young individuals become easily dehydrated and it then will alter the developing body – and the mental development which is very crucial at this life’s stage. Later in life, aside from diseases, challenges posed on us are accomplishment of tasks and the consequences if we are unable to do so. Failure to accomplish any required tasks will have a doubling effect and will only pose more and more complications. Failing grades leading to more requirements and delay in education. It has a holistic effect on an individual – mentally, physiologically, emotionally, spiritually – and depending on the support system that that individual has will define the character of the individual whether to rise up to the situation or not and fail even more.

Character

Our character defines what our life will be in general. If you’re a person who is strong willed and goal‑oriented, chances are you will have a better life. But, if you’re a person who is fixated and easily contented, you’re life will easily plateau and may not reach many milestones. And, if you’re at the extreme, which is easily discouraged and defeated by challenges, you will more than likely have a hard time in life.

At both extremes, I believe that whatever our present life is gives us more than enough reason to love it. After all, as long as we still live, we still and always are conferred with the chance of making it better - because conceding that life will not get better is tantamount to killing yourself. It is the person who owns life who gives chance to life to get better and not anyone else. We make our own lives. Love it and it will be better.

Life is a coffee of unknown greats

Again, am I in love with Life? I have billions of reasons to be. I am surrounded by good people – my family and friends and more friends. Life is a coffee of unknown greats. It is bitter and sweet at the same time and while you’re at it, there are more and more unknown greats to discover and experience.

coffee anyone?

Sooner or later, I will be asked why this blogsite has the touch of coffee, and before that happens, I am now taking it upon me to ask myself why. Why?

Well, first is that I am a coffee lover. I cannot get through the day without drinking five or six cups of coffee in a day - one or two upon waking up and three or four cups in the evening to end my day.

Still why coffee for a blog with much of the articles posted in the site involving personal and random thoughts? Well, I actually plan to read and study the art of brewing coffee in depth, the differences in the taste of different beans, the aroma, and the documented physical and psyche effects each coffee bean has to the human body.

Coffee is a great part of my life. I started drinking at a young age, thanks to my dad and older brothers who themselves are coffee lovers. With numerous café shops popping like mushrooms in the country in the late 90s, it further introduced me to different tastes of coffee and beanery. Then, the coffee mania run and continues to run in the veins of the working genre, both old and young – including me. I have yet to answer the question, have I? Briefly, in answer to my preemptive question to myself, I actually plan to make this site a notebook of my pursuit to further my knowledge of the art of coffee brewing and the coffee’s benefits to the human body, to include also its adverse effects.

Coffee anyone?

brewing the site to your taste

although no one has ever visited this site and while this site has been created back in 2005, what happened today still merits my touchpad. this, because today i did a major overhaul of this site - from the template to the elements. i am not really big on blogging and doing stuff which the public can easily access, but hey, i must say i really enjoyed doing this. well, ahh, not much on the blogging (?yet), but the tweaking of the site. what i did may be simple stuff and more of a dummy thing, but for a moment, i felt like an IT savvy. thanks to the abundance of help the world wide web provides and of course, thank you to the real internet savvies out there. thank you. it really felt like brewing the coffee to your taste, adding a little of this and that, previewing the site like tasting it, and then finally sitting back on your coffee chair while enjoying every sip of it.

invitation

I am supposed to be asleep now, but hey, here I am still working. I am the only person awake now in the household. The bed is very inviting, what with the cold breeze brought about by the monsoon rain. Yep, the bed is inviting me and my eyes are prodding me to indulge. But, nah, I still can't, I still have about four tracking numbers to clear.

Gotta get going, so I can finally be one with the calm subconscious me.

solitude

inspiration does not come like a bolt, nor is it kinetic, energetic, striving, but it comes to us slowly and quietly and all the time, though we must regularly and every day give it a little chance to start flowing, prime it with a little solitude and idleness. Every man must take time daily for quiet and meditation. In daily meditation lies the secret of power. No one can grow in either spiritual knowledge or power without it.