i admit that i may not be the best nurse in the world.
but i'm proud of my profession cos we nurses are able
to care for people whom we barely know and do all the things
that their own family members are not capable/willing of doing.
in lieu of nurses day, i decided to come up with my very own FAQ section.
so that you readers somewhat know a little bit about how far
our measly basic salary of 1.6k can stretch.
it's a tad too little considering the compassion, patience, empathy and
whatnots we shower to the patients.
adding the dirty work (i meant faecal matter, nothing sex related you morons) that we do.
(1) what is the first question we always ask during admission?
ans: "is this your first time being admitted to sgh?" if the answer is yes then
we'll totally skip the whole chunk of orientation. great way of cheating isn't it?
(2) should patients always trust the nurses who's taking their blood or setting their iv plug?
ans: ABSOLUTELY. we're not THAT great but if you freaking trust us, then you won't intentionally move your hand when the needle's in and that won't result in us poking you twice or more and then having the blame shifted to us for not being "good" in doing the procedure. cut us some slack! we don't enjoy poking people. besides, we have lots of other bloods to take and other plugs to set. don't freaking waste our time already!
(3) why are nurses always pushing patients to walk on their own? don't they care?
ans: it's precisely because we care that's why we don't want you to freaking cling onto us like some koala bear. firstly, the ultimate aim is for you to be independent. secondly, we're humans too. we do not defy gravity, we can feel weight. please spare our lives too.
(4) when a patient wants to be referred to a medical social worker (msw) as an outpatient,
how many calls do we nurses have to make?
ans: lots of phonecalls. msws are extremely busy people. so have the courtesy of thanking us when we say that we've tried and we'll get back to you asap. don't worry, even if we don't, we'll pass it on to the next shift to take over.
(5) why're nurses always seen rushing around?
ans: easy. we're busy entertaining multiple patients' requests, doctors asking for things, colleague requesting to open the controlled drug cupboard (needs 2 staff nurses to be present), medical students asking for more things, neverending phonecalls, students asking to teach something (not complaining about this. i love teaching them), beeping terumo pumps and ctg machines, etc. so, why're we rushing again?
due to lack of energy, i guess five questions would suffice.
sorry dear readers.
but please do understand where we nurses are coming from.
it's not easy to please everyone.
however, believe you me, as frustrating as it is,
we love the patients. really we do.
okay. i do.
to fellow nursing buddies,
happy nurses day to all of you. =)