A Nurse's Hand-over Note
Good-bye...
To everyday duties.
Either the hard-to-wake-up, always late 7-3 shift or my fave 3-11 shift or the sleepy but used-to-it 11-7 shift. Good-bye to the daily rides and the rushing and panting or lazy and happy walks...
The usual rides and walks and
bi-weekly change of shifts taught me how to value time. It opened my
eyes on giving my best on every new day 'cause life is really short. And that just like every missed bus
rides, opportunities lost will never come back... All we can do is patiently
wait for the next one and hope that we will never be late...
Good-bye...
To the daily hospital routines.
The daily census and chart counts and medications and equipment inventories. The morning rounds with the doctors and carrying-out their orders afterwards like following-up laboratory and radiology results, medication administrations, bed-side cares and charting. Medication tickets and Kardex updates and finally, endorsements with the incoming shift staff.
Almost the same daily activities but they made me realize that every day is a learning opportunity and a chance to prove our worth. There is no Super man or super nurse in this world. At the end of every day, no one can really tell who the best nurse was, but only the patients and their watchers. And the measure of an effective NCPs is not only "goal met" but the flash of a smile and a warm "thank you" from a patient's heart...
Good-bye...
To phone calls and referrals; to formal and informal NPIs; to chit-chats with our colleagues and to end-shift endorsements...
Good-bye to the talking but not to the lessons learned: the value of communication. No matter how busy our days were, proper and effective communication skills and patterns helped us render efficient patient care and won friendship in between patients and their relatives and our colleagues...
To our toxic patients who survived after doing everything we could and to those who did not. Good-bye to the toxic moments we loved because they sparked the day and we hate because they were simply toxic!
But I've realized, they were more than toxic-turned exciting experience. They were actual testing opportunities. A test for our skills, knowledge and attitude; and in every lives lost and lives saved, there comes faith; and that life is really great but death is an inevitable thing that no one can defeat, only God knows...
Good-bye...
To my "PERSONs" - my colleagues-turned-out friends; to our Bonuan escapades; to our food-trips, pictorial stints and in-between busy and lazy-day chit-chats. Good-bye happy moments and welcome sweet memories...
In the middle of our busy days, we still found time for a little get-together and merry-making. Short as they were but they made our working relationships better and stronger. Indeed, laughter is the best medicine and friendship is the energy of a living soul...
To the nursing students who I am secretly supervising as their Clinical Instructor. Only those few good friends and colleagues of mine knew that I am simultaneously working as Part-time CI and I was always tempted to say that I am every time they say that I will do and look good as CI but I've chosen not to or else I'll be sitting next to the Chief Nurse in his office...
Good-bye to the happy feeling of sharing knowledge while learning and earning. Indeed, it was a great experience. It was physically tiring and draining but every time I see my students smile and say "Thanks Sir!" I'm relieved. I've realized that I may not have taught all the things that I need to or I may have taught something wrong unconsciously but I still believed that I have done my best.
At the end of every 16 hours duty, while I'm heading home riding in a jeep where I am the only passenger, thoughts ran in my mind and made me realize that learning is indeed a continuous journey in life. The day we stop learning is the day we lose the very essence of our existence- learning and failing and learning and growing...
Good-bye...
To my white uniform. A very pleasant and dignified wardrobe. It represents life, cleanliness, hope and a bright future. Every time I remember the days I went home and worn-off a dirty and stained and stinking uniform with the concocted sprinkles of medicine and body secretions, they remind me that I worked hard... And even how dirty those uniforms were, I still pick them up, wash them and wear them again and again and again...
Good-bye for now... But definitely not forever... I will rest, but I will never quit...
I have opened a new chapter of my life. I am working in a new environment and mingling with different kind of people and personalities. Surely, I will reap a bunch of new experiences and memories that might change my personality and beliefs but surely, I will never forget that -
Originally written September 30, 2010.
ReplyDeleteCollage of memories at Region 1 Medical Center, Dagupan City.