best wishes

Dear students,
time to say best wishes and see u again.
May i send my apologies for leaving PC,
to me deep in my heart i really want to see
everyone of you walking up the stage receiving your
diploma. I can imagine i will be greatly touch to see that
moment. Coming to work in PC was never a mistake and make the
decision is not a mistake too, it is fate that allow me to cross your paths.
It is my pleasure and honor to know everyone of you.
My desire for everyone of you is to be a nurse with a calling. Some may not
end up to be a nurse eventually , but learning to be a nurse is an
interesting journey , and it comprises not only gaining knowledge but it is also
life changing career.
I know all of you can make it to pass to be an RN, my prayer is that
your path being a nurse , will be an enriching experience that when all of you
grow old sitting on the rocking chair thinking back that how much you
have contribute into healthcare , how many lives have you touch,
Take care my dear students, all the best.
emily

Dear School...

Dear School,

We can remember the first day when we first started our journey to be nurses. Such a wonderful day, filled with hopes and aspirations. We have came from different backgrounds and had various life experiences individually but as a whole, we are driven by the passion to be what we are going to be.

Giddy with excitement about upcoming things that we will learn and experience, we are filled with a sense of purpose. For most of us, it was another chance after all those dead ends we had turned away from. We met our mentors, got our class schedules and made friends. The first days were tough. You are still expanding then so we accept it as best as we could. We saw the potential in you and we put faith in the fact that some day, you will be so much more than we expected. Inside small classrooms, great things were taught.

We were taught the mapping of the human body, its functions and why we should know about these things. We were inspired to be better, to think differently and to ask those things that common people will not ask. We were told that integrity is important and that compassion follows everything we have to do for our future patients. We were told all that because as you said, " You are all going to be future nurses!".

We endured as best as we could through the toughest moments. No one said it will be easy but we were not expecting it to be so hard. But still we persevered. We were compared to others but all that we can say in reply is this: they did not walk the same path and at the same time that we did. The others may not be necessarily better just because they are better behaved or having better results. We are the first and the best. Try juggling night lessons with nursing classes in the day.

Despite the odds and fellow coursemates going away, we pressed on. Holding our heads high and believing that our passion will see us through. We hold in our hearts the fire that our past and present mentors ignited for us. The greatest of inspirations comes from those who wants to see us become competent nurses, even good nurses. We had this confidence that we will be greater than what you want us to be. Like we had said: we are the first of many, and the best of them all.

But even the sturdiest of hearts waver in these trying times.

Our past mentors. Each left for his/her own reasons. Whatever those reasons maybe, we will always wish them all the best and respect the choice that they have to make. We carried what they had taught us in our minds and hearts. But it is difficult.

We went to the wards and people asked: where are you from? We told them about you. We bear the your name and uphold it. But we could not help feeling so alone as each of you left. We were assured that we will not be abandoned and will be supported but as the days come and go, so does our mentors. We have to keep receiving news of so-and-so leaving, so-and-so coming in for a week and then leaving. We began to lose confidence. Not in you only but also in ourselves. For whatever challenges that you may have to face, can't it be worked out? Why is it so hard for you to keep everyone here?? It is not just one or two that went, it is so many and many of them matters a great deal to us.

We are still going to be nurses. We are still going to succeed. But we may become cynical. Its neither all your faults, nor our faults. It is just that circumstances have brought us to this point. How many to leave before we lose all faith and confidence? Everyone that leaves impacted us to a certain degree.

How are we, as children, be proud of parents that we don't even know well enough? When we are asked: "how's your School like?", how are we to answer?

Disheartened and shaken,

Your First Students...

The Importance of 15 minutes

Time really passed by so fast.

It was little more than a year ago when we were still 'green' student nurses.

After all the trials and tribulations of managing our studies, coupled with all the problems that seem to hit you at inopportune timings, things seem to be finally looking up.

I can barely contain my excitement about being posted to Mt. E this time and in the OT. ward some more. I was so hyped about it that I woke at 4am to check on what I had to bring for clinical. The anticipation was understandable, as this is my first time at Mt. E and the OT.

This is the time when I finally learn the advance tools of the trade. The stuffs that t.v. script writers drew inspirations from. I'm gonna see real critical nursing, surgery and medicine being practised here. The clinical detachment of medicine, the compassionate care of nursing and the entire surgical team's efforts to bring the patient from sick to healthy, made all this learning worthwhile for a novice student nurse like me. This can be considered the "saving lives" part of what we are doing as nurses.

The day started with a quick orientation by our CP instructors. We are briefed on Do's and Don'ts. Then we changed to the scrubs and footwear to enter the OT areas! Miss Tan and Sister Tan were very nice to orientate us throughout the OT areas and also to answer our questions. We were assigned to SSN Irene who will oversee our learning and orientation to the processes of OT. We were sent to the recovery area for post operation patients to recover. This will be the equivalent of the PACU, from what we learnt from our classes. I learnt the importance of the first 15 mins which starts counting when patient is wheeled in to recovery area. The after effects of anaesthesia and the generally physical weakness of patients after surgery can not be underestimated. There will always be chance that complications may occur at any moment for the patient.

From my observations of the nurses at work, and interactions with them during break times, I can see and feel that they all took their work very seriously. They combined the best of their nursing skills, knowledge and compassion, into what seems to be effortless work-flow but in reality, it is very physically and mentally demanding.

Make sure that there are enough of this-tube-and-that-tube of every sizes in the drawers, the equipment checks on valves and suction machines, the system tests on monitoring devices, the preparations for each surgery, the in-depth understanding of ALL the drugs used and their effects on patients' recovery and etc...

All the above are just daily run-through for these nurses. And I have not managed to list them all. They made me feel that nurses are worth a lot more than they are given credit for by the average layperson. Imagine doing all these things and still having to remember the preferences for surgical set-up of each surgeon. Seriously, what will happen if there are no nurses running the show in OT? I think it will utter chaos!

I am going to make the best of my 2 short weeks there and learn as much as I possibly can about this aspect of nursing. I've got to find out how does a Magill circuit works before I conked off for the night or else I will be wondering about it tomorrow!

Thinking Of An Announcement

Hmmm...I have been thinking of how best to make an announcement without any diversion on your concentration for your pending examinations. All in all, it looks like a bad timing to me. Nonetheless, after the revision I felt relief that majority of you folks will highly likely make it for the MS module...although I would be more impressed if you all could demonstrate your ability to link up patho and the care (which many a times form the rationales behind the interventions. Have you realise it!??), esp the ENs (stress ya?). Please keep up the good work and the learning spirit!

I guess I would not have to worry too much as long as you could keep your thinking hats on...not only during the course but more importantly in the clinical settings as many events are happening simultaneously, be it routine or sub-acute, it is easy to get sensory overloaded. In turn, it may affects your judgment and impact on patient outcomes. No matter what, please be kind to the patients. Majority of the patients are, indeed, at our mercy.

A year more to go folks! And soon I would look forward meeting you all at a different platform...hang on.

All the best for your exams! I know you can do it.

A New Look! New CP

Dear fellow members of Group 2,

As you can see from the blog, there are some new changes:

The design and the photos are finally updated. I've also included a link to our student activities council blog. Do show your support by visiting the blog and post something. If you need permission to access the SAC blog, you can let Jocelyn Suarez or me know, so we can grant access.

As Su had mentioned, this semester passed quite fast and here we are going for our CP again. This is a good time for reflecting on our past strength and mistakes. It is also a good time to add in your thoughts as we progressed through our CP. From my personal chinese blog on QQ's Qzone, I've seen quite a few active members of our group, blogging away in your native language. I strongly encourage all of you to contribute some of your thoughts here too! After all, this blog was set up for us!

I have the intention of setting the permission to view our blog to be public. That will mean that everyone will get to see it. Although its mostly ramblings from me! haha.

Expect more ramblings and grumblings from me! Blog posts tend to increase during CP time.

I wish all of you the best for your CP.

Regards,

Stan