So my first week in the Philippines is over and it has been a busy one! First of all the Notting Hill saga continues and I can now safely say I have disappointed nurses all over Manila by living in the wrong Notts. It was straight down to business when I arrived with 3 to 4 visits to hospitals, clinics and Universities every day I was in Manila almost as soon as I arrived. I had the lovely Rodeo as my guide who liked to hold hands when we crossed the road (for my safety, of course) and top up his make-up before each of our visits. He was pretty adorable!
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| Rodeo & I before our meeting with the president of the PNA |
Out of all the hospitals we visited over the 5 days I think the one that has stayed with me the most was San Juan de Dios Educational Foundation, Inc. Hospital. It is actually a private hospital and is in pretty good nick as a result but that wasn't the impressive part. As we visited departments and I spoke to nurses it quickly became apparent that research is a huge part of the day to day routine here. For example, in the ICU the nurses received complaints about patients not getting their medication in a timely manner. 5 years ago they started to look at this in more detail and on the day I arrived there was a list of 17 conclusive reasons why patients medications are late (illegible hand-writing, unclear instructions from doctors, out of stock in pharmacy, paperwork not completed correctly as just a few examples). They are listed out and each nurse must put a notch beside the relevant reason if there is a delay with meds on their shift. They are systematically working their way through the issues that cause this problem and trying to come up with solutions for them one by one. My favourite is the name and shame method for illegible writing from the repeat offending doctors!😂 It's working though as there has been a notable decrease in patients waiting for medication and subsequently a decrease in complaints.
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| With Rodolfo Borromeo (right), Director of Nursing & some of the nursing staff in San Juan, a hub of nursing innovation & research |
The best bit about it though is that doing research as part of their daily routine is totally normal to these nurses. If there is a problem, look into it. Investigate it, write it up, publish it. It's brilliant to see nurses so enthusiastic about further learning and research and to be contributing so much to their patients and departments at the same time.
San Juan wasn't a flash in the pan though. Several of the hospitals and Universities (most notably Arellano University and the University of the City of Manila) had shelves upon shelves of research bound and published by current nursing staff, students and alumni. I've never seen anything like it! The topics varied hugely as well, from research on mental health to diabetes to community care to HIV.
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| With the head of the nursing faculty in Arellano University and members of the faculty |
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| Styling it in my Arellano University tshirt! |
Rodeo and I also visited the Niners centre in Manila, so called because the guys who set it up all got 9.0 across the board in their English language tests back in the day so are seen as the go to people if you want to do well. It was a really interesting visit actually as there were a few gaps in my knowledge especially when it comes to the difference between the IELTS and OET. I had thought that once the OET (the occupation focused English test) was rolled out the IELTS would become obsolete but that's not the case. The OET is only for health care professionals, there's no equivalent for other professions so the company still sees a lot of people come through who are married to nurses or related in some way and wish to go to the UK or Ireland with them but have to do the more difficult test because they are an engineer or architect, not a nurse. The more I learn about the immigration process the more complicated it sounds!The ones who do make it over have certainly earned their VISA by the time they get there!!
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| Rodeo & I with Ervin, president of Niners |
Also, a week can't go by without a little bit of drama can it? There was a typhoon out over the Philippine Sea which didn't make landfall thankfully(!) but did cause a bit of a cyclone and some serious flooding all around Manila. I had a few days between working in Manila and Cebu and had planned to bus it down the Eastern Visayas through Tacloban and finally arrive in Cebu. Due to the flooding (and risk of landslides that everyone and their mother kept telling me about) I was talked out of that plan and flew to Cebu from Manila yesterday morning after a few extra days weather watching out of my hotel window. That in itself wasn't loads of fun - I don't like flying at the best of times, flying in storms is pretty high on my list of activities to avoid! But all's well that ends well, the weather in Cebu is hot and sunny which is a nice change from hot and torrential rainy!
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| Bit bizarre seeing this first thing in the morning! |
I met Janice from the Cebu office this morning and we crack on with our visits tomorrow.
Oh and another bizarre thing that I love here - Irish bands are big! And not in the everybody knows who Bono is kind of way. Boyzone, Westlife and the Script are constantly on the radio and EVERYONE I have met loves the Corrs! It is literally amazing to have random Filipinos singing Corrs songs at you on a daily basis! No B*Witched though, which is disappointing. I obviously have some non-nurse related work to do.
To summarise, it's been a busy start, the weather has been terrifying but then lovely, nurse research here is amazing and the people are some of the friendliest and nicest I have ever met. Although I really can't get used to being called Miss Kate and ma'am all the time - feel like I'm turning 80 next week rather than 30!
Last week of my twenties spent in sunny Cebu and a visit from Gareth, laden down with gifts (obvs), to help me celebrate to look forward to. Even I can't find anything to complain about today and that's saying something!😊
Slán
Kate
