The Much Awaited Increment

I had a wonderful day ! I cannot believe it! I received a letter from the Human Resource stating that effective 1 January 2007 my salary will be one step higher. At long last! Yehey!

It does not mean that I am already contented with my salary. What I mean is ...finally the administration have considered my efforts....at least for this time.

How about the much awaited 15 % cost of living increment? Well, I will just hope and pray....

New Policy 2

Thanks to God, I am off today. I had 3 Am Shift in a row. Huh ! Sigh... sigh.. sigh. I can consider the past 3 days as one of the "toxic" days of my life. We had 20 patients, under staff and out of 20, 7 patients were operated that day. I have assisted several procedures inside the treatment room.

It has been 2 months since the new visitation policy was implemented. According to the administration it was the first stage of the implementation. It means that the 2nd stage will be implemented soon. I don't know what to say. I am really tired of this new policy. During the first stage of the implementation, there were a lot of arguments I have had experienced especially from the emiratis and very seldom on the expatriates. Several complaints were presented to the administration. It is really true that in every change there will be hesitation and resistance to change. I remember the stages of change, the first stage is the unfreezing. I can say that the new visitation policy is in this point. Hopefully in the near future we will experience the second stage of change which is the change itself , then finally we will come to point of third stage which is the refreezing.

Being a staff nurse, I am proactive to take part on the implementation of the new policy but I always end up frustrated and HYPERTENSIVE. Let me share what happened yesterday.... At About 2p.m. a relative of a patient went to our nurse station and asked for extra bed. This relative is a medical intern working in this hospital. I did my job, so I told her that we will not give an extra bed because only one sitter is allowed to stay with the patient. She was claiming that the sitter is not comfortable with the sofa bed. Few hours after that, I received a phone call from the Nursing Supervisor and asking me about it. Holy cow! Even the Nursing Supervisor was not aware that all the sitters bed were removed several months back and were replaced by a sofa bed. We had an exchange of explanations. Nothing happened. The relative went to the PRO while the Nursing Supervisor asked the opinion of the Assistant Director of Nursing. An emirate PRO agreed to give the extra bed. The Nursing Supervisor phoned me again and told me to bring an extra bed. As a result of this, we blocked the RM 1 ( a sharing room) just to satisfy the whims of this emirati relative. Imagine, 1 bed was blocked only to satisfy the whims of their people. It means that we will not admit a patient in that room because we don't have a bed to use. I cannot rationalize the action of the PRO. What if that bed is the only bed available for admission and there is a sick patient coming to be admitted? That damn PRO! I cannot imagine also an intern working in the same hospital and not aware of the new policy. In the first place she should help us in the implementation of the new policy. F*****g damn shit!

I went inside RM 1 to get a bed and gave it to the sitter in Rm 18, I was surprised to see 6 children inside the room. I called the security and asked him why they allow those children to enter the hospital. The security admitted that he allowed the 6 children to enter to avoid any argument from the emirati adult visitors. As I look at the security man face, I notice that he's scared to the emirati adult visitors. I immediately called my Nurse Manager and endorsed to her the problem. I gave up.

Thanks to God, I am off today. I need a rest. I think I deserve a good massage.

NEW POLICY

I'm back. I spent few weeks of my vacation with my children. It's so sad to be back in a real world....long hours of working, arguing with my patients, doing the nursing routines.

Before I left, there was a memo that a new visitation policy will be implemented. No more carpets inside the patients room, one sitter only for every patient ( depends on the case e.g. patient is dying, living far from the hospital or other emirate), no food from outside etc. Huh! I think the administration is dreaming. I think it will be difficult for all of us to implement the new policy. If I will base my opinion on the attitude of the emirati people living on this part of the world, I can say that it will take several years to implement the new policy. For almost 2 years that I am working here, I can say that it will be difficult to argue with the emiratis to leave their carpets behind. I think it is totally changing the CULTURE.

During my first PM duty, I can still see relatives ( or shall I say a CLAN) , especially male relatives staying inside the patients room after the visiting time. A lot of hard headed emiratis who always claim that they own the hospital and we don't have the right to tell them about the policy.They look at the healthcare workers as SLAVES. They think that they can do whatever they want to do because this is their country. I cannot see the point! Even if this is their land, they should abide the rules. And to think that we are doing this for their own good. NOSOCOMIAL infection will be lessen and a lot more reasons.

From the administration standpoint, they already did the press releases about the policy. The things that they should expect to change and to happen. And from the healthcare workers standpoint, we included it in our discharge instructions and even during admission. I think the emirati patients and relatives must broaden their minds. We are not doing it for NOTHING. We are doing this for their own good.