I am very sad to read the latest 'not our level' issue and I feel called to share my experience about this. Nurses are basically people I meet every day (except my off day, of course) and they are actually the health institutions' backbone, to be honest!
They deserve more respect, more appreciation.
Here, I am not trying to say about respect compared to other professions as I have this belief that every jobs have their own struggle and hardship. But, I want to clarify that nurses deserve better than how they are treated by community.
Let me share roughly about my life in the ward.
Officially, the schedule of houseman (normal / extended shift) started at 6-7am, depending on hospitals, one of the first person we meet in the ward will be the nurses. Some of them will be at the counter, settling stuffs before handling their pass overs to the morning shift nurses. Upon HOs are doing morning reviews, all the medical notes (or we call them BHT - bed head tickets) are already on the patients' table, together with the observation charts and medication charts. Nurses are the one who distribute the files to each beds every morning while they are taking the vital signs reading for EACH patient 4-6hourly.
Vital signs - blood pressure, heart/pulse rate / temperature / oxygen saturation / respiratory rate (how many times you breath per minute) / pain score
Just imagine if patients' vital signs are not monitor accordingly, who will be the first person to notice patients' blood pressure drop a lot? Who will update the HOs that patients are desaturating / gasping for air?
After their pass overs, they will make beds - meaning arranging bed linens, giving out new cloths, changing pampers etc AND at the same time, some others will check and records the next vital signs monitoring. Some will distribute the medications while checking the glucose level (for diabetic patients)
Just imagine again, how patients' progress will be if nurses don't serve the medications on time, or how the sugar level will be if no one pricking the fingers of patient and check for it?
"Dr, SpO2 patients tak dapat pick up ni. Dari tadi 90% je. Akak up kan bagi nasal prong taw"
"Dr, BP pakcik X ni mencanak-canak ni. Nak kata stress, dia relaks je. Nak bagi ubat stat apa-apa tak?"
"Dr, GM (glucose monitoring) patient 2.6 je ni. Nak bagi apa-apa?"
Then approaching 8am, medical officers and specialist will be around to check progress of each patients. Morning rounds can end as early as 9.30-10am, but some complicated cases may delay it to 11+am. After round with bosses, HOs will carry out the plan, TOGETHER with the help of nurses.
Carry out can means a lot. It is either active or passive. Active means you need to do it stat / right now as the delay can affect the patients much - urgent blood takings, urgent scan requests, urgent referrals. To be honest, passive carry outs are important as well T_T. Why? They need to be done within working hours (minus the lunch break) - referral to physiotherapy / diabetic nurses / dietitian / speech therapy / pharmacists / hemodialysis / ECHO / scans.
Not to forget... tracing stuffs - it can be either old notes (documents from previous hospitalization in the same hospital / details from hospitalization in another hospitals / baseline blood results etc)
As simple as this, really show how doctors need nurses A LOT. They will always reminds us of our carry out, for the sake of patients.
I will never forget my very first day of work. I was in O&G department at that time, trying to figure out how to do proper vaginal examination. Doing it as a medical student is not the same as when I am already a doctor. I feel blessed to have good nurses around to guide me around with so many new, first-time things in working life.
Nurses have more experience than doctors, especially the one who have worked for years. Experiences vs knowledge - very subjective isn't it? Doctors may learn more through out the 5-6 years of study, but nurses have better knowledge via experiences. :)
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All in all, medical staffs need each other. I am here to support the nurses!
And trust me, human beings need each other. That's why we live in the same world, right?
Respect others as much as we want people to respect us.
Love others as much as we want others to love us.
And lastly, this proves that we need to expect nothing in return, just blessings from Allah for whatever people don't see.
Much love for you guys. <3
SM, Perak, Malaysia
181230
