For every screw up I make in the hospital, I mentally bash my brains out with an imaginary magical hammer. It's an unhealthy, really, but this unusual habit seems to be the only way wherein I can expel all negative and horrifyingly embarrassing moments out of my system. On those particularly bad days, my imaginary catharsis turns my brain into mush. *sigh* The powers of sublimation.
Anyhow, my bad days can range from the fickle, shrug-shrug, bad day to the catastrophic, kill-me-now days. For example, one time, I gave the ROD (resident on duty) skin-tape instead of plaster. If you must know, skin-tape is really not sticky enough. I knew that; however, I figured, skin-tape is better than nothing. Actually, it was probably better if I gave nothing at all :D Now, I'm obsessed with plaster! I've got a great roll of plaster around one pen (green), skin tape on the other (black) and transparent tape on the red one :B
One time, my vital sign-taking skills was questioned. I take great pride in my vs skills; it's my most basic skill, requiring finesse and a sense of timing (like, "quick, the baby's sleeping!! RR and HR now!!!" quick). Anyways. I got some really low HRs and really high RRs, so off I go to the doctor on duty. The good doctor pronounced that my vitals were wrong, after taking a good, long 15-second look. Right, doc, sorry doc, I hastened to say. I took those vital signs for one full minute, but sure, you're the boss, I added to myself.
While Ivan thinks it's fairly disgusting, I think that true guts involves suctioning without gloves! A true man (or woman) needs no gloves for pulling out secretions out of bloody ET tubes! Since I never got the fundamentals of suctioning during my college days, I don't find it weird/disgusting/unhygienic to suction with bare hands. More than once, I've gotten a dollop of phlegm on my arms without flinching. I just hold the urge to barf in, run out and handwash like crazy! Suctioning is a procedure that demans more bravado than skill :D You plunge it in, open and close the machine, and voila! tubes are as good as new! Anyhow, my careless disregard for aseptic techniques designed to keep me safe and healthy has made me come to the conclusion that I might be secretly harboring a death wish. *cue Twilight Zone BG music*
Example #1: Suctioning without gloves
Example #2: Ignoring punctured wounds from injections
Example #3: Caring for a patient with PTB. Without a mask :p
It's not that I don't particularly value my health: using gloves, making a big deal out of a tiny puncture wound and using a mask gets in my way all the time. So, I make do without it :D Reckless, but hey, it goes a long way in saving children's lives :D
So far, the biggest and greatest lesson that I have learned in the hospital, particularly in the ward, is to BE KIND, to everyone. Kind goes hand in hand with being humble, and the 2, working together reaps marvelous dividends. When you're kind, people appreciate the things that you do to the point that they don't get mad when you accidently burst their child's soluset :D Another nice thing to learn: swallowing pride. I've swallowed mine whole from the moment I got to the ward, allowing one zealous senior volunteer to teach me the concept of quantity ("Etong quantity kung ilan ung ipapabili niya. I-times mo sa prize, yun na yun") without daring to say that 14 years of education has taught me such arcana already :p
