requirement in POC ~~DIARY

MY P.O.C. DIARY

FIRST WEEK

February 2, 2009

It’s our first time to step into the vicinity of the Philippine Orthopedic Center (POC). It’s actually our first day of the ten days duty that is 4 hours each day (6am-10am). There were a lot of student nurses from other different colleges and universities who were with us for the orientation. The nursing supervisors tackled about the Balance Skeletal Traction (BST) and even demonstrated the whole procedure of application right before our very eyes. Some of us were so lucky to be able to see and hear everything clearly because we got the right (seat) position compared to the others. Ma’am Gloria Glecy G. Giorla, our clinical instructor (CI) was in a hurry but she was very accommodating. Not to mention that she is a beauty. J

February 3, 2009

It’s our second day in POC. The starting activity was having a pretest about the anatomy and physiology of the musculoskeletal system. I passed and THANK GOD for my “stock-up knowledge”. J Ma’am Giorla took us to the male traction ward. We performed taking of vital signs of our individual patients. My patient has antibiotic beads on his right thigh because he developed an infection on the site. He had his daughter with him as companion and they eventually told me that his daughter is a BS Nursing graduate from batch 2008 and that she was just waiting for the result of the licensure examination that she took on November of the same year. The daughter asked me why I still took up nursing when I already knew that there are lesser job opportunities for nurses already. I told her and my patient, “I really wanted this course. I was planning it to be my pre-med. And I have a strong faith that I will get a job after graduation.” J But I told them that there is also a possibility that I won’t pursue medicine anymore but just continue to be a nurse practitioner or specialize in any nursing area I am greatly interested in (which would be one of the following: OR, DR, nursery, psychiatric nursing). And then during our stay in the area, I found out that most of the cases of the patients there were caused by motor accidents. I told my patient I love driving the motorcycle then he told me to just be careful and not to drive anything more than 1000cc. I said I just drive either a 125 or a 100 and I’m still not planning to try the highway. J After going to the ward, Ma’am Giorla gave us a lecture about the hardwares. She showed us the dolls with different tractions and casts, and also some braces.

February 4, 2009

It’s our third day in POC. We took a long test about the lecture yesterday –casts, tractions and braces (hardwares, in short). I was hoping to pass, and so I did. THANK GOD for the “stock-up knowledge” again. J We went to the library to do a research about our reports. I was assigned to do a report about multiple sclerosis. I learned the basics about my topic by just looking at the works of the other students. They were pretty helpful. J After the library work, we went to the male traction ward and performed vital signs taking and morning care (bed bath) to the same patients we had yesterday. It was not that hard, though it was my first time to have an adult male patient. My patient was very cooperative. He had his IV dislodged and a nurse on IV training tried to reinsert a new IV but failed. My patient complained that he had trauma with the IV trainee and thanked the staff nurse who did it easily and perfectly after the first “traumatic” one.

February 5, 2009

It’s our fourth day in POC. The activity was all about us doing the return demonstration of the Balance Skeletal Traction (BST). We were grouped into 3. I belonged to the four-member group with Kylie, Maryann and Mae. Ma’am Giorla first demonstrated the procedure so that we could have a review. A group of nursing students from other school joined us in watching our CI do a perfect BST. J My group was the 2^nd to perform BST. We forgot some nursing responsibilities and made little mistakes but we did it pretty well. And now that made me strongly believe that 2 (4, actually) heads are better than 1. J We got a grade of 91% and we were so happy about it. Thanks to Ma’am Giorla. J

February 6, 2009

It’s our fifth day and the last day of our first week in POC. Ma’am Giorla was not able to come so Sir Servan handled us together with his group, our block mates –group 4. We had reporting. I was not able to report because we were running out of time. Sir Servan gave us a lecture and showed us the different gadgets and also some x-ray plates of the different bone deformities and the actual look of the gadgets inserted in the patients’ bodies. After that, we took a long test about the lecture. I was so glad again to have passed the test. J

SECOND WEEK

February 9, 2009

It’s our sixth day and first day for our last week in POC. We went to the pediatric ward which was temporarily located at the hospital’s gym because of the on-going renovation of the real ward. It was my first time to see children with pins inserted in their bodies (legs, specifically), usually BST. I pity the children very much. I could hardly look at them because I feel like it was too painful and too much for them to bear. I suddenly thought, “I AM SO LUCKY TO HAVE NOT EXPERIENCED ANY HOSPITALIZATION SINCE BIRTH.” I wish that they all get well soon. I salute them for still being able to smile despite their conditions. We rendered morning care to our patients and took their vital signs. I got a very cute, little girl patient. She is 3 years old and when I asked what her name was, she shyly replied with an accompanying shy smile, “Ate Cheng-Cheng.” I thought she was really shy at first because she was hiding under her blanket. But I found out I was totally wrong when her grandmother told me that she was just scared of the doctors who were doing their rounds. And I just want to say that I thought her grandmother was her mother (and I kept calling her “nanay”/mommy and I asked what happened to her “daughter”) until the “not-so-young” woman whispered to me that Ate Cheng-Cheng is actually her granddaughter. She even mentioned that her youngest is a 2 year old, who is obviously one year younger than my patient. She said they were from Bulacan. She also kept on mentioning that the students from other schools gave them toys, food, etc. which made me think that she was wondering why we didn’t have anything for them. Anyway, I was just so fond of my cute patient because she became so jolly and “makulit” after all the doctors left the area. She even sang me song from her favorite afternoon TV show (that is not totally advised for children her age). But too bad I don’t know the song so I couldn’t sing with her. And then before we left the pediatric ward and bid our patients goodbye, Ate Cheng-Cheng suddenly got “pissed” at me because she thought I was making fun of her that caused her to be ashamed. But it was not me -- It was actually my other group mates. I tried to explain to her the truth and tried to “make-up” with her but she just won’t look at me. L And then it was really our time to leave because some other schools were scheduled next to us and so I got a little present from my pocket and handed it to her. She smiled, bid goodbye, and even thanked me. I felt relieved. J

February 10, 2009

It’s our seventh day in POC. I reported about multiple sclerosis. Ma’am Giorla took us to the female traction ward where we rendered morning care to our patients. I noticed that most of the patients in the area were old women and concluded that most of them had hip dislocation. My patient was a 15 year old girl who was bumped by a scooter/motorcycle in Pangasinan. She traveled all the way from her hometown to POC to seek medical attention. I was so shocked with the extreme spine curvature (a big lump on her back) she got from the accident. She has severe weakness of the lower extremities that causes her to carry her legs whenever she needed to move or change position. She just had one companion with her. Her family does not visit her all the time because of the great distance. I really pity her and wish she could still go back to normal or if not, I wish she could already go back home because I know she misses her family so, so much. After rendering her with morning care, I and Mae did the same to the patient beside her who was a grandmother. I forgot her age but I think she is past her 70’s. We were so careful in rendering her care because we were so scared to cause her pain on her pinned leg or make her feel uncomfortable. The patients in the area were all so cooperative and everyone smiles a lot despite their conditions. J After going to the ward, we had our group picture-taking together with Ma’am Giorla and Sir Servan. It was fun. J

February 11, 2009

It’s our 8^th day in POC (and it’s my mom’s birthday). J We had reporting. We got our copies of the group pictures. J After that, we went to the male service ward where we saw that most of the patients’ external fixators were delta frame, hybrid, Roger-Anderson External Fixator (RAEF), and spanning. Some of them also had posterior molds. The causes are mostly motor accidents, mauling (beating), and some other accidents. It was our first time to see a patient with osteosarcoma (bone tumor) on the femur. It was too big that we thought it was just a pillow on top of his right thigh covered with a blanket. We wanted to do further observation or even conduct an interview but we didn’t want the patient to feel ashamed or uncomfortable and besides, we didn’t have time anymore. Maybe we’d go back next time. Ma’am Giorla said it would have been better if his case was the one we made an analysis about. But it was too late since we already got a patient for the group case presentation/analysis. We also went to the spinal ward but we were not allowed to go beyond the door because there was a risk for acquiring spore-forming Pseudomonas. The students from the other schools looked at us in a funny way because we were wearing our smock gowns, clean gloves, masks, and Louie even wore a hairnet. But we pity them because we thought maybe they did not know the risk and we were just protecting ourselves from the microorganisms.

February 12, 2009

It’s our ninth day in POC. It would just be reporting and maybe watching the video about club foot.

February 13, 2009

It’s our tenth day and last day in POC. Wow. We survived!! J It’s the evaluation day – we’ll be having our evaluation test that covers almost everything that we learned during our stay in POC. I wish for all of us to pass, of course. And THANK GOD and Ma’am Giorla for the fun and meaningful experience we had. We will not forget most of it.

••LEANNE KRISTINA L. CORREA••

Group 1 OLGC