Protect Yourself and Others

12th August (Tuesday) - Today it's a really slow day. Well, okay, partly because I'm really sleepy from reading up old nursing notes. Oh yes, nursing is an everlasting process. You can never stop learning. Good thing I kept my old notes and textbooks. See why I refuse to sell them to my juniors.It's not being selfish or anything, but it's because you'll need them for future references, especially those important topics like Cardiovascular, GIT, Endocrine and Musculoskeletal. It's impossible to know every single thing in 3 years. As mentioned before, nursing is a very large field. It's all touch and go; furthermore, theory and practical are really different.
Okay, we were taken to the other side of the ward (No power blackout this time) and we had the chance to observe a wound packing. Really different from previous hospital training, but oh well. Who says everything is in a straight line? Different hospitals, different practices. Because I was still the new one, I was introduced to the various equipments and was given the chance to play with some of them. The sterile machine (autoclave), the suction machine and a drain. I get it why we have to learn how to use them, because once you're a nurse, you're expected to do everything smoothly. We were also taken to the HDU to learn the Emergency Cart, especially for Intubation. Since an accident or emergency may appear at any time, we have to work fast, not time to think. I was so nervous til the staff assured me that it takes time. Well, okay.
Because the talk took several hours, by the time we're done, we only have an hour til lunchtime. To kill off the time, we sorted out cabinets of papers. Ugh, all of them are mixed up like mashed up omelette. Finding a paper is also like finding a needle in the haystack. The CI saw us sorting through the papers and just sighed, saying why can't people tidy up things in the ward. I even saw the catheters that we have tidied up last week were all messed up. Great, I hope the professors won't chase us if we couldn't find the equipment on time. ==
Then we have a CNE talk about documentations. It's more or less what we have covered back in Sem 6 Management in Professional Development, but we have to adapt to the current hospital writing style. Back in the good old days, I used a sort of paragraphing style which is traditionally used, but now it's the PIE format. Of course, documenting is super important. Not only as legal issue, but it's to act as an evidence to protect both yourself and the patient. After all, in standard protocol, within 7 years a court case may be taken up if negligence is found. I won't say more from here to bore you the details. And tomorrow is going to be another busy day. Wish me luck. I'm really going to need it.