www.littlenars.com | Dianne Peña

So what happened to LittleNars 3 months ago?

3 months ago…. I was loaded with paper works, modules and homeworks…

For my second year, 1st semester, I took up Nursing Administration and Cardiovascular Nursing. Booooy! Those subjects made me think twice to pursue this degree or not.

I got busy in interpreting ECG strips that I interpret to be “just scribbles”… Got stiff neck and hand callus once again from sitting and answering long exam questions I don’t know where to get answers… I submitted homeworks, which are 1-2 inch thick or probably a 50-100 pages… Honestly, coffee was the source of EVERYTHING. Thank you CAFFEINE!

I thought I wouldn’t survive the first semester. Now is the start of getting things done “SERIOUSLY”. The past few semesters in UPOU were a happy-go-lucky one.

3 months ago… All my hard work got paid off… I GOT EMPLOYED. Finally, by the hospital I spent 1.5 years of serving… THANK YOU LORD! Thank you that they have seen my efforts and abilities to be called “STAFF NURSE”… Though my status is just “on-call”, it is okay compared to working for free.

3 months ago, I earned new friends from work, from school and got reunited with my old friends…

3 months ago, I have written several incident reports… for some reason that I am not really the “reason”…

3 months ago, I am not asking my mom for allowance… and THAT made me proud of myself…

3 months ago, I lost 3 pounds… after looking at the mirror, I saw my puffy and bulging eyebags and concluded that all the things I eat magically absorbed by my eyebags.

3 months ago, I was super busy adjusting to what was happening with my career and studies and love as well…

3 months after, here I am blogging and telling you all… I will still continue in what I do now… Let’s all hope for the best!

No recent blog posts because…

All the things inside me and the things I’ll tell and type about will be used against me, if not for now… maybe there will come a time… (I hate being careful and contained)

Anyway, my mum just offered to increase my weekly allowance because she saw the bitterness consuming my well-being… Who would decline with that right? But I did. My weekly allowance is enough for my daily expenses and other expenses besides that (you know what I mean…)

I will be 22 years old this July and still I can see no fulfilment in what I am doing… My mum said “Ano bang pinapagkaabalahan mo?…. Pagboboypren?” (Perhaps my mum will have read this post eventually…) I think besides “whatever-you-call-what-I-am-doing” yes, I am majoring in my “love” life. LOL!

And then after all this “thing” that consummate me… then I turned back to Facebook and Twitter… I saw this

Do I really just have to wait and see? Or am I being trying hard to appease people who doesn’t even notice?

I have read the sentiments of others who feel the same… I think all it takes to end this is guts to really tell how you feel…

Today… I am updating my resume… but who cares?

For 8 months that I have been rendering my volunteer service at the OB-Gyne Ward in our institution… I am now starting to ask why… it isn’t my interest and it is not connected directly as to what I am studying now… this is what I have thought of…

Number 1- I am a SHE.
Number2- I have a VAGINA.
Number3- I just am A GIRL.

It’s true. Being a girl sucks and I think being in OB Ward is a redundancy in life already.
I am a novice nurse and I SOOOO want to learn something different other than the female reproductive system.

NO. This blogpost is not against anyone or anything. I actually have learned a lot with the 8 months that I have been assigned there. I have nothing against the people or the institution etc…

At this time, I just want to explore my options and hope that OPPORTUNITIES will be opened for a volunteer like me. Uhmm… perhaps a rotation or an employment opportunity? YES! :]

Ever wonder why your friends suddenly change their Facebook profile pictures to BLACK with their Facebook status stating : “Over 200,000 nurses are unemployed, underemployed & abused in the Philippines. Many of us are overworked but extremely underpaid. Help us gather awareness & support by changing your profile picture to pitch black from January 01-11,2011. It is time we take care of our prime care professionals! Appreciate your Nurses, take care of them – like they take care of you. Join the campaign now! [www.aynla.org]“???

Check if they are nurses… if they are. This post might give answer to your query.

The “BLACK-OUT” is in support for AYNLA’s (Alliance of Young Nurse Leaders & Advocates International Inc.), a national registered organization of nurse leaders & advocates in the Philippines—- Nurses Black-out campaign 2011.

This is for every nurses’ endeavour, cause or advocacy…

They came up with the advocacy particularly to utilize social media as a tool for nurses’ rights awareness building, initiate social & mass mobilizations in relation to the protection of nurses’ rights and to garner support from individuals, organizations and communities to end all forms of discrimination and abuse to nurses in the workplaces and communities.

Increasing number of nurses has always been a problem (or shall I say, is becoming a crisis) but why just now? According to PRC (Professional Regulation Commission) our country already produced 200,000 unemployed and underemployed RN’s in the year 2010.

It is ironic that the Philippines is one of the top exporter of their own skilled, professional nurses but the country, itself is lacking of many nurses to take care of the communities and the society.

Hospitals and healthcare facilities acknowledge their shortage of nurses but fails to hire more because of proclaimed budget constraints. This leaves dozens of nurses flooding in workplaces other than in the field of nursing like call centers.

Many new nurses, wanting to gain hospital/clinical experience as a presumed key to international employment, offer their professional nursing services to the hospitals without getting paid. [Please insert my name here...] —Yes, we are called “Volunteer Nurses” “OJT Nurses” “Nurse Trainees”… And yes to the fact that we pay for a “3-month” or “6-month” hospital experience.

This campaign period is from January 01 – 11, 2011. I know it’s a bit hard to change your profile picture to BLACK but it is for a good cause so why not join the cause?

VOLUNTEER NURSE AKO KAYA BLACK ANG PROFILE PICTURE KO… XD

Is it really too much to ask for a job? — the question that is painstakingly ruining through my system.

Let me give you an overview as to where this post is coming from…

April 2009 marked the start of my unemployment.
June 2009 marked the start of my “Registered Nurse” status
January 2010 marked the start of me being a “Nurse Trainee”
April 2010 marked the start of me being a “Volunteer Nurse”
July 2010 marked the start of me being entitled as a “Junior Staff Nurse” (Please don’t get me wrong, it’s not that I am promoted, It’s just a EUPHEMISM of the above…)

Since then… NOTHING has changed.

December 2010 marked the last day of my hospital duty for the year.

What did I get?

Well… I did learn a lot, made me gain confidence and some “strategies” in making my work as “SWABE” as possible. To be honest there were times that I just wanna ditch my duties because of “same-old” cases but I am still THANKFUL because EVERY DAY is a LEARNING DAY.

I ask myself, why is a decent nursing job so aloof or distant –shall I say? Am I not ready or am I just not looking closely?

Looking back at my monthly tweets with hashtag of #wish one thing in common is “EMPLOYMENT” and now that the year is coming to its end… I wish for 2011 to be…

EMPLOYMENT

Oh look…

Dear Facebook Apps, Thank you sooooo much! YOU GAVE ME HOPE

*Pardon for my EMO post *