Wednesday, October 7, 2009

A day in a life..

I am currently doing my tutorial block rotation for 4 weeks.
Basically, the whole month is just tutorials (as the name suggested), shadowing intern for a week and attachment/shadowing other members of the team (namely the physiotherapist, occupational therapist, nurses, radiologist etc).

Last Friday morning, I was shadowing a nurse from 9am until 1pm. I consider myself lucky to be attached to an enthusiastic nurse who wants me to really live a day (well, half a day really) in a life of a nurse. Directly after introducing myself, I started changing bedsheets all around the wards. Now I am able to put on flat sheets and make them really crisp! (I usually avoid buying flats, prefer fitted or valance sheets). Well back to the story.. Then I had the opportunity to help change an old lady's diapers and help her wash her back, put her clothes on etc. Did some manual handling, coercing a patient to eat her lunch and was shouted at by a patient because he said we treated him like a baby (fed him and lift him up).. I was wearing a short-sleeved white coat and I buttoned up all the way to move around easily, and everyone started calling me a nurse, even my classmates!

It's amazing the workload these nurses are facing everyday! After being with them for a day, I understand why they sometimes do not get along with the doctors.
To all the nurses out there, Thank You for your hard work and you are greatly appreciated!
To all the doctors and doctors-to-be, we need to put ourselves in someone else's shoes to understand them.
So, stop b*tching behind each other's back and work as a team!!

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