My Moments At Westlake Medical Center

The new six storey Westlake Medical Center is soon to be 100-bed capacity tertiary level hospital that provides the benefits of modern health care to the city's poor constituents.

The Westlake Medical Center Hallway

Westlake ER

Staff of Westlake Medical Center

Major OR Theater

The OR table

The Executive suit

The Executive Room

With Information Staff of Westlake Medical Center

The ER fronliner

Our bosses at Westlake medical Center

A DAY IN THE LIFE OF A NURSE, NURSE-PATIENT RELATIONSHIPS:

 Nurses in Isolation

In 3C, there is a certain area consisting of 7 rooms which we call the Isolation Unit. This is where we cluster patients who are highly infectious and or communicable; also patients needing reverse isolation are catered here whenever appropriate. They are taken care of by one nurse each shift who wears protective gears as needed.

Isolation nurses must be regular employees so they receive full hospital benefits in the sad case that they catch the patients’ disease. It is a 3-month task of facing the same illnesses, washing hands thoroughly, and building up immune defences. I became my shift’s Isolation Nurse last March, and I’m about to pass the crown come end of June. Following is a list of things I learned during my journey; I hope it helps my junior colleagues or just all the other nurses who might be assigned to a similar area.

·         First, when a patient is just about to be admitted to the Isolation Unit, scrutinize whether he/she is really a candidate for an isolation room. You are the nurse and you have all the right to a debate!

·         Learn to endure heat. Some cases require universal precaution wherein you’ll need to wear at least 3 face masks, an over-all gown, and a set of gloves. It’s a sweat-inviting gear, but I tell you, it is all worth it when you think of how best you’ve prepared for yet another battle.

·         Be skilled in donning your mask in 2-seconds flat. No wearing of caps for female nurses and/or eyeglasses because it gets in the way. Remember, it is your first line of defence; when things get really, really desperate, at least you are protected.

·        Moreover, learn the art of breathing and being understood despite the N-95 mask. I’m not sure which one I have perfected first, but I know that both required a lot of practice and deep-breathing exercises. I remember having colds upon donning N-95 masks before, but time just flies and now it’s just as comfortable as my white duty shoes.

·      We cater to a lot of patients diagnosed with Pulmonary Tuberculosis; one confirmation test is Sputum Acid Fast Bacilli (AFB) Smear which is a spit-test for three consecutive days. As the iso-nurse, keep track of this test as if it’s your favourite T.V. show; because you HAVE to know.

·         Encourage everyone to wear mask. This includes the patient, the watcher, visitors, or even the stubborn doctors making their rounds. Remind them that 3C only has 7 isolation rooms; we can’t accommodate everybody.

·          Most importantly, know the patients’ diagnosis. It’s quite embarrassing that when I was  a neophyte nurse, I sometimes get inside my patient’s room and take vital signs without knowing the diagnosis! But in isolation, it is crucial that we know the patient’s case in order to properly equip and protect ourselves.

·         Know when to get patient out of the Isolation Unit. If suddenly the patient’s condition proved to be non-consistent with isolation-risk cases, we transfer them to a regular room. The fear and discrimination of being isolated is quite a big concern, and we just have to help them get out. Newly diagnosed cancers and pediatric patients are the usual candidates for this.

I’m happy to be able to ‘graduate’ as the Isolation nurse; my experience honed my skills in a whole different way. I had the best time and thankfully, my patients were all awesome; some said goodbye permanently, but I’m definite I did everything I could to provide them care.

Now I need to submit myself to some tests just to be sure I’m clean coming out.

Source: http://filipinonurses.org/index.php/2013/09/nurses-in-isolation/

SEPTEMBER 5, 2013 , 0 Peng Desuyo

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Why are there so many Filipino nurses in the US?

This was the question posed to me by a curious TV reporter on May 7, just three days after a stretch limousine traveling across the San Mateo Bridge carrying nine Filipino nurses to a bridal party suddenly burst into flames killing five of the occupants, including the bride.

When she interviewed me in my law office in San Francisco, Ann Notarangelo, the  reporter who is the weekend anchor of CBS 5′s Eyewitness News, explained that she was only asking the question because it was on the minds of her viewers. She thought I might know the answer as I taught Filipino American History at San Francisco State University and I am the legal counsel of the Philippine Nurses Association of Northern California. Plus, I added, I am also married to a Filipino nurse.

Ann said that she was frankly surprised to learn that 20% of all the registered nurses in California are Filipinos, a considerably large percentage since Filipinos number only 2.3 million (officially 1.2 million) out of a state population of 38 million.

“I never noticed it before,” Ann told me, “because I generally don’t see people in racial terms.” But, she said, in reflecting back on all the times she visited friends and relatives in hospitals all over California, she now recalls seeing Filipino nurses everywhere. Not just in California, I said.

There but not quite there

The seeming anonymity of Filipino nurses in the US – of being there but not being quite there – is likely no more. The video clip of the fire-engulfed limousine was the top story in the US over the weekend. The media reported that the fatalities included Neriza Fojas, 31, a newlywed bride who was planning to get married again in the Philippines in June; Michelle Estrera, 35, the bride’s Maid of Honor who worked with her at a Fresno medical facility; Jennifer Balon, 39, and Anna Alcantara, 46, of San Lorenzo, who both worked at the Fruitvale Healthcare Center; and Felomina Geronga, 43, who worked at the Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in Oakland.

Americans also learned about the nurses who escaped the fire and were treated for burns and smoke inhalation:  Mary G. Guardiano, 42; Jasmine Desguia, 34; Nelia Arrellano, 36; and Amalia Loyola, 48. In a TV interview shown all over the US, an anguished Nelia Arellano blamed the limo driver for failing to stop immediately and for selfishly  refusing to help them get out of the burning limo.

As the TV camera started rolling, Ann posed the question to me: “Why are there so many Filipino nurses in the US?”

There are push and pull factors that are at play, I explained. The main push factor is the poor Philippine economy where an average RN earns only about 5% of what an RN is paid in the US. The main pull factor is the nursing shortage in the US.

Americans should not to be too surprised at the large number of Filipinos in the US. After all, the Philippines was a US colony from 1899 until the Japanese occupation in 1942 and, some would argue, a “neo-colony” for many decades after the Philippines was granted independence by the US in 1946.

It does not surprise the British to see many Indians and Pakistanis in England, nor does it surprise the French that there are many Algerians in France. They understand that people from the colonized countries generally tend to gravitate and immigrate to their “mother” countries, even after their native countries were granted independence.