Just do what you can

Have been pretty quiet and lazy on the electronic communications front since returning from my trip. Finally got around to sending out my year-end greetings today. Thank goodness for the internet's fast delivery times ;-)

Been busy with the usual post trip unpacking, home cleaning and gifts sorting. At JC's ROM reception, we missed TSC's presence for he is the sensibility counterbalance to MC's and my sense. LK looked under the weather. MC explained that LK is still adjusting to her self-employed life without external time regulations.

Thereafter it was back to work, with some busy days, some not-so-busy days and a Christmas party to lighten up the mood. Still it was some adjustment after my rest-and-relax break of a week.

Recently I met my nursing buddy CL while on the bus to work. Her ward was closed and the ward's staff deployed to the other maternity wards during this period. Her ward manager is a kind leader and the staff had a strong affinity to their own ward. Each maternity ward has a different organization of its supplies (even though its the same specialization), which required adjustment on the part of the temporary deployed staff. Thus, CL said that her colleagues did not like to be deployed to the other wards. Anyway, to cheer her up I told her of my new attitude to manage work stress, "Just do what you can."

On the morning of 19-Dec-2009, SEN L was my runner. Seeing that she was somewhat down at this festive season, I invited her to join me for a Chinese movie since I had a pair of free tickets from my credit card points. After the movie, we continued with shopping and a long chat [Edit: Yay, fruitful shopping! I spent about SG$100 on several items that I really love and L spent about $70+ in the sales]. I have always felt that L was too astute to be just an EN. Turns out that she was lured to be trained overseas in Singapore as a nurse, just before she was about to attempt China's university entrance examinations. To cut the long story short [click here, here and here], she is likely to be stuck as an EN if she stays in Singapore. She shared that she has siblings in Japan and Canada [IMHO, real first world countries], but she has not decided if she would join either of them. From her past sharing, she seemed keener on Japan than Canada. Since I have a collection of Japanese textbooks and dictionaries mostly lying idle [Edit: From 15-20 years ago when I learnt Japanese], I will be giving them to her. May it spur her to do something for her own future.

As for me, I have been tasked by my ward manager on several items, mostly to assist with documentation of procedures [Edit: For the forever impending JCI, ha ha!] and managing the treatment room. From my personal interests, I would like to share some IT skills with my colleagues while I am still around. Especially with the older or foreign-trained staff who did not have the benefit of IT exposure. That is the culture I inherited from my IT background, "One always try to pass on one's skills before leaving". I also plan to suggest some changes to the billing system so as to facilitate our nursing billings and to minimize the items used but were not billed.

On a personal front, I would like to meditate more consistently, as it helps to smoothen out my workday. In addition, I am planning to re-learn French again since Canada is officially bilingual. Meanwhile, I'm still awaiting for the approval from CRNBC to attempt the CRNE (Canadian Registered Nurses Examinations). Once that goes ahead, I will have a full plate studying for the examinations. If I have any time leftover, I would like to squeeze in some Yoga exercises... which I have neglected for years!

Looks like a busy and fruitful year ahead! May you have a good time too! For those interested in Chinese astrology, here's your forecast for the coming year of the Golden (Metal) Tiger.

Multi-facet thing

I am at the Budget Terminal waiting for the boarding gate to open. Perhaps it's the "getting away from it all" of vacation. For the past few days, I am hearing and seeing things from multiple angles.

Example 1: Yesterday ward manager mentioned how good LKY is. My usual response would be to go "Bah!", even if only internally. However, I was more circumspect and noted that her comment was valid from her own personal experience. [Note: My ward manager is an ex-Malaysian Chinese, converted to Singaporean citizenship.]

Example 2: Had my confirmation review with my ward manager today. IMHO, she is a much better leader than ADON G, who is currently her boss. I learnt about how my ward manager was transferred to be ADON for 6 weeks years ago. She came back to the ward to settle the chaos that ensured after her departure. Then I thought, "Well, at least this organization is not that hopeless. They did spot the leadership talent in my ward manager, just that circumstances were such that she stayed as the ward manager."

Another thing I noticed is that if I go on a vacation mode and am not conscious with my budget, I "spend money like water". I have not boarded the flight yet, but I have already spent almost $20 at the airport! There are just too many attractive material things available for sale. Ironically, I am going on a spa, detox and meditative break. Ha ha :-D

6 months old

I'm 6 months old at work, surprise surprise! Had pretty good times for yesterday and today. The ward manager was back from her annual leave yesterday.

Yesterday was a lull day. The ward manager even had time to share with us about traditional chinese medicine in the afternoon. SN J was in-charge, SN L and I were team leaders, SEN MY and SEN M were runners for each team respectively. I started with 3 patients (all relatively stable) and a booking for a ICU-return-to-ward case. 2 patients were discharged that evening, SN J helped me to label the medications for one of them as our pharmacy was already closed. SN L took the heavier team at the back with around 8 patients. I offered to help her, but her patients were also relatively stable and thus she didn't need much help except when she was taping the handover report.

Today SSN Y was in-charge, and there were 4 SNs (SN O, SN L, SN RB and me) + 1 HCA K. The assignment was SN O + HCA K for the heavier team and SN L + me (as runner) for the lighter team. SN RB as the extra runner between the 2 teams. Thanks to SN RB helping me out with the parameters and I/O charting, I could do ad-hoc jobs (e.g. collection of medication stock, collection of blood for transfusion, emptying Jackson-Pratt drain, HGT test, assist in clearance of an abscess, etc). SSN Y went through and signed my on-the-job training form as it is already due. I even had time to take photos of our ward's Christmas decorations. :-)

There were several admissions late in the evening, just before report handover. Nevertheless, I hope that the next 3 days will be peaceful for me too, because I am counting down to my vacation.