Day 14

This is my 14th day of taking team. If you are wondering why I had not taken team as part of my student training, it is because my sponsor's management did not support student nurses functioning as acting-SNs. Thus during my student days, I was assigned to EN or HCA roles. It was only occasionally when the SN is generous or too busy that I was allowed to handle some medications.

Took the team with the rooms far from the nursing station again today. Started with 9 patients this morning, the same 9 that were there when I left yesterday night. That helped, as I was getting familiar with the patients and their parents' preferences. There were 3 discharges, of which 1 patient whose parents cancelled the discharge and decided to stay 1 more day. I went in earlier in the morning to get the blank pharmacy billing forms ready and managed to complete the medications to-do list before taking report.

The admin staff M and 5 nursing staff were on-duty. 2 SN (J and I), 2 experienced HCAs (M and K) and my preceptor as in-charge. HCA K was assigned to my team. Managed to give all the medications on time, except for the delays requested by the parents. Followed 3 doctors on their rounds and did the follow-up. I still have problems recognising the infrequently-visiting doctors and thus ended up running after them to the patients' bedside. My preceptor and SN J helped with the other 3 doctors' rounds, co-ordinating 1 patient's trip to a doctor's clinic (maybe this was done by the admin staff) and the paperwork for 3 discharges. My preceptor also did a wound dressing on my behalf as I was busy with medication and discharging a patient. Finally, just before report passing time, I managed to finish the flow charts and taped my team's report. During report passing, I did rounds with a doctor and the follow-up. When I was done, my afternoon colleague told me give the 2 pm IV medication for a patient. This is because they are passing report at that time and thus I should cover all medications until my shift is officially over. [Morning shifts are from 7:00am to 2:30pm, afternoon shifts: 2:00pm to 9:30pm, and night shifts: 9pm to 7:30am.]

Did not have any time for tea, lunch or toilet break. After my shift was officially over, I ate my lunch, filled up the pharmacy billings forms and entered the ward billings into the system. It was 3:15 pm when I was done. Still, I am glad that I've survived another day. I am very thankful for my colleagues' help, especially my preceptor's support. I am very lucky to be assigned to her.