Felt a Little Poke (Hospital Nursing)
Category: Filipino Nurses, Filipino Nurses' Stories, Nursing Industry in the Philippines, Posted on January 4th, 2010 by adminNo Comments
I truly hope the assurance of safety for nurses in Philippine hospitals would be seriously addressed by the concerned authorities. Just recently, one of my colleagues suffered an occupationally-related accident—a needlestick incident. She can’t help but become paranoid; she is preoccupied that she might acquire an illness after that unfortunate incident.
The mishap that my colleague experienced could have been preventable. She was only closing a pathetically improvised sharps bin (disposable mineral water bottle) when a protruding contaminated needle stuck in her right palm. The incident makes me squeamish and terrified every time I go on duties knowing that it could always happen to me too. Could this be the real price of hospital nursing? Hospitals in developed countries use devices that permanently disable contaminated needles thereby reducing the incidence of needlestick; can’t the government afford such devices? Or the only thing that they could afford is to compromise the safety of healthcare workers?
The Philippine government should also grant healthcare workers their heartfelt attention especially on matters concerning the latter’s safety in the workplace. They could at least view it as a form of “Consuelo de bobo” from the little amount that these workers are earning in our country.