Hospital posting-- journal 2

This week we were switched from orthopaedic ward to general medical ward. The overall experience was good. The staff nurses are better, and I got to learn and practice a lot more in this ward than before.
After three days in the female ward, the strongest feeling I had was—I don’t want to be like them when I am old. Additionally, caring them is a lot more frustrated than male patients.
I’m sorry, but it is.
If you compare a 50-something female patient with a 70-something male patient, you will get what I mean. Obesity dominates majority of the female patients. Additionally, some of them are very lazy. Yes, very LAZY.
They just lie there and expect you to do every thing for them, although they are able to walk normally. If you try to turn their bodies, they whine. If you ask them to lift up their buttocks, they say they can’t. If you ask them to lie properly, they ignore you because they want to sleep.
What the headache!
Anyways, having them as my reflection, I know I want to be healthy when I’m old. Maybe I should start practicing yoga and commit in a healthier lifestyle. On the other hand, I can’t imagine myself living without cheese, pancakes/waffles, KFC, fries……
Today I cleaned a diarrheic patient. As I removed the pampers, the smell of “flower” instantly hit me straight on the face.
Oh my god.
Due to the CI disallowed us to wear mask, I had to hold my breath, get my head down, wipe it, and then quickly turned around, inhaled the best air as possible before the next round began again.
After I finished, I felt so happy, not that because the procedure was finally finished, but because I felt so achieved and proud of myself. Except my little dog, I had never done something like this before, not to anybody. Let alone my parents, my brothers, even my lovely boyfriend. I remember many years ago, my uncle got a stroke. I even refused to help him to pass urine. Today, am I actually pulling my pride down and doing this. It really means a lot to me. I’m sure it goes same with the patient herself.
I’m still having a conflict about the whole mask and gloves thing. The CI said we ignored the patient’s feelings if we wore gloves and masks for every procedure. Yes, some of the procedures really need no protection. But when I feel like I need to protect myself for certain procedure, why can’t I? Yes, being a nurse, caring the patients is the top priority. It doesn’t mean the nurse should love herself less. It is not that I’m being selfish; it is just that I want to be more cautious. I mean, I have to protect myself, to prevent myself—or the patient himself—from falling in sick, in order to be able to continue to care for and help the patients. Have people ever thought about why MRSA disease is common in the hospitals here, but 0% in UK hospitals?
Today, a doctor was supposed to clean the pressure ulcer of a patient. Because the patient got diarrhoea, the doctor scolded at the patient’s mom. She asked me to clean for the patient and then tell the stuff nurse to clean the ulcer site instead. She herself then disappeared right away. What a good doctor.
Why there are so many doctors’ malpractice cases here? I think the doctors are addicted to the powers they get from their superior job, and have forgotten about their core of ethics—to cure the patients. Every morning, they come around the ward and do check up for every patient. All they do are just asking patient some questions, maybe palpate a little bit here and there, and then disappear. Once they have the diagnosis, they keep on prescribing the same plan and medicines for the patient. If the patient persists the condition for quite a time, aren’t they trying to figure out the reason? Maybe it is not the fever they have diagnosed, maybe it is pneumonia that causes the fever? Like years ago, my brother got an appendis surgery. It took more than three physicians to finally find out what had happened to him. I mean, appendis is not as hard to diagnose as fever, how could it take three physicians? Maybe the first and second physician shouldn’t have being a doctor. I think there are actually a lot of illnesses can be cure, apart from the scientific technology, one of the reasons is probably the misdiagnosis from the doctors.
I always jot down the illnesses that I especially concern and then ask my boyfriend’s brother rather than asking the doctors here directly. Yes, I’m still having a hard time to trust the doctors here.
While the people here are “worshipping” the doctors, I treat them equally as how I treat other people. Of course I still show my respectful manner when I work with them. After all, I know I have to be professional. Are you a doctor? You think you deserve my respect? Prove me that I’m wrong.