Too Ideal to be Real By: Mae Abigail Z.

Simogan

Sa ideal setup, mao ni siya. Pero sa actual setup, ing-anithe only statement which catches my attention everytime we have our lecture demonstrations. Indeed, we dont live by the book. We live by hospital protocols. Every hospital is entitled of its own unique setup. Every setup has its twists. Every twist entails an artistic view of understanding. What has been published in books is way too perfect. Texts are too ideal to be real. Words are too high to fathom. Books provide the best way to provide quality nursing care but most healthcare settings only improvise, provide substandard care, and say the clich Nursing is an art. A nursing student is to undergo a series of return demonstrations to be able to affirm his learning on the procedures being taught. A checklist is provided, memorized, and understood to pass a particular return demonstration. With all the hassle and the grumble, the student, well-equipped of the knowledge and experience, goes out from the Skills Laboratory and says, I finally know how to do it! The idea is great. The way of measuring the students understanding is beyond compare. When we look on the other side of the road, our minds are mostly enriched with high ideals; ideals, which can only be appreciated in the farthest point of the future. Study to forget, not to get. Since incongruence of the ideal and the real is evident and experienced, students tend to be confused of what to do. They are well-equipped of what to do but the thing is, its not what is truly practiced in the actual setup. We learn things in school, which are way too different from what we do on LIVE performance. We might have aced in school, impressed our clinical instructors, and felt secured of ourselves. Wait until we go on duty at the different hospitals; for all we can do is mumble, Abi kog koan bayts, pero di man lage sakto? Di ba mao man na ila gitudlo? Ha? Galibug nako! These are cries of confusion which welcome the fear of more unknowns.

Lets now take a closer look on a few ideals taught and their equivalent reality: A disposable syringe should be used only once and disposed of right after use. In reality, this can be used for as long as one wants to. Each one has the right for its unlimited use. Nurses wearing a disposable face mask in dealing with one patient should dispose of the mask and change it before attending to another patient. This is to prevent crossinfection among patients and staff. As what is actually practiced, only one mask is being worn throughout the shift. Every patient should have his own bed but now, three patients can occupy the same bed at the same time. A nurse, ideally, should render care to a maximum of three patients only, to establish good focus on the patients condition. In the actual setup, an average nurse has at least 20 patients to attend to. Yes, one can multitask but the more tasks one does, the harder it is to focus. Each patient should stay inside a room. Due to lack of rooms, some patients are bound to stay in the hallway for the entire length of hospital stay, if there would be no vacancy.

There is a big difference between whats ideal and whats real. Whats ideal is geared towards perfection while whats real is anchored by practicality. We become too practical that we tend to forget whats best for us. There is a surplus of nurses in the Philippines yet many of them are either unemployed or underemployed. Then, a question pops in our minds, Why hire only a few registered nurses at a time when theres a great number of patients yearning for quality care? The very popular answer for this would be: The budget is not enough to pay for more wages.

Each one of us has the slightest chance to enjoy the best facilities and services being offered by the premium hospitals in town. In order to get that chance, we need a large sum of money. When we cant afford to have that hefty value, we begin to stick to alternatives, which we think are cost-effective and worthy of our time and effort. We decide. We go for them. Then we struggle; after finding out that instead of getting better, were now into a worst case scenario. Health is wealthas the old saying goes. But I think its more like: Health needs wealth.