because i’m boredFor some reason, I’ve decided to resurect this blog. Not that I had plans of giving this up, I just haven’t found the time (or effort) to work on it, but these past few days, I’ve started visiting my old links again and somehow, I kinda missed blogging. I don’t have the luxury of time so please excuse the old recycled theme.
So where have I been this past few months?
I did an 8-week competency training for nurses in Auckland with my brother and 3 other friends. So far, those rollercoaster 8 weeks have been the best part of my trip (yet). Somehow, having friends around kept me from becoming homesick that it sometimes made me guilty for not missing home so much. It was just so fun living in a house with 5 other people with the same wavelengths. It was great having a house all to yourselves. You eat when you wanna eat, talk as loud as you want, sleep when and where ever you want and not worry because nobody would mind. But ofcourse, we’ve had our share of getting lost (lots of it!), being broke, feeling self pitty (for certain reasons), doubting our future, missing the train or bus a zillion times, shiverring in the cold winterry mornings and many more unfortunate events but having a few people to experience everything just makes it seem more bearable.
The competecny training will probably top my list of best and worst moments of my NZ life for a while. It was the longest 8 weeks of my life. At first, it was the dreadful 9-3 lectures, sitting in class, trying hard not to fall asleep or not get caught sleeping. Yes, even from across the oceans, we’ve never changed. We still sleep in class, we still come in late, we still take breaks longer than what we’re allowed, and we still don’t take notes, but the best part of it is that nobody cared.
Lecturers had more important matters to worry about than telling off their adult students.
After 2 weeks of lecture, we thought the worst was over. We thought wrong. We spent the 3rd week at a rest home. It was a good starting point rather than going straight to the hospital setting. It was quite a new experience since I’ve never taken care of elderly people (no, grandparents aren’t counted). It was fun and it helped that that the hospital staff we’re very nice and I had a buddy nurse althroughout the week. Whew.
Then came the 5-week stint at ACH, alone in one of the 80 wards in the public hospital. Basically, they had given us our Ward assignment a few weeks before we started and intentionally put each of us in different wards alone. On our first day, they told us to show up in our respective wards before 7am, introduce ourselves to the staff and go from there. What the F. Work alone in the ward surrounded by foreign beings? Ohdear.
Those 5 weeks had been nerve rackingly life changing. The paperworks were probably the worst part. It just didn’t seem to end. There were no exams, no pathophysiology, no grades. Instead, there were journals for reflections on how your day went, how you feel about things, what lessons you learned that day and what things you want to improve on yourself; exemplars for events that made such an impact on your practice and what you learned from that event; case studies for that certain article which you feel would be useful you your current practice. Yes, it sounds easier than case presentations but wait til you have to do it every single day for 5 weeks PLUS the stress of working as student nurse under foreign staff with no one to turn to when you mess up and their expectations because after all, you’re an RN PLUS having to deal with your tutor who pops out of nowhere in your clinical area PLUS the pressure of working with dozens of doctors, physiotherapist,dietitians,social workers,occupational therapists and gazillion other personels everyday and your tutor’s expectation to ACTUALLY deal with them. And oh, add those bloody careplans and assessments,too. I have never felt so nervous, tired, scared, and annoyed at the same time. Breaking point. But I’ve learned a lot. A lot is such an understatement. I still can’t believe it’s over.
But after every storm comes sunshine. And as for me, my sunshine is my new job. It’s not the best in the world but it pays the bills…..and the shopping…..and the gadgets…and so much more.
I’m now stuck in the cold outskirts of Taranaki, spending my precious days off infront of my laptop because it’s too freezing cold to go out and there’s nowhere to go anyway. If you’re looking for greener pastures, then this is literally it. Green green grass of hope with cows on the side.
I’m working as a nurse at a rest home and so far, I’m enjoying it. It’s not as exciting as surgery ward but it’s a good stepping stone because right now, I don’t think I can handle the preeeessssuuurresss of Auckland City Hospital. Not right now, but definitely in the future. I swear i’m not gonna stay here forever. Don’t get me wrong, I love the place, but i just don’t see myself growing old here. I belong to Queen Street.Hehe.
So much for a short update.
Hafta go!
December 1st, 2008 at 10:43 pm
hi ate! how are you there in nz? nice, long time no comment ako dito but im happy that you’re okay there.
god bless! 