Nursing Competency: A Horrid Resonance
Category: Filipino Nurses, Filipino Nurses' Stories, Posted on February 9th, 2010 by adminNo Comments
“Does she really know what she’s doing?” This question still resonates in the deepest corners of my soul. An incident that truly challenged my nursing competency.
It was supposed to be a relaxing weekend for me at the beach. The weather’s beautiful, the beach’s magnificent; everything’s perfect. I spread my sarong in the white powdery sand under a talisay tree. I sat there siphoning a glass of nice, ice-cold mango shake. I was starting to read Paulo Coelho’s intriguing novel “Eleven Minutes”; “my weekend getaway is excellent”, I thought.
Enjoying every moment of frigging around, I indulged myself even deeper into a well-deserved slumber. Moments later I was awakened by frantic sounds of people. A young girl drowned and the concerned people was shouting “who’re doctors or nurses here?” I am a nurse but I’m not really well-versed when it comes to emergency situations such as what was transpiring.
With an honest heart and intentions clear as an infant, I hurried towards the victim. She’s unconscious. Of course I started with the ABC principle. She was not breathing so I attempted to revive her but nothing happened. Despite my focus I couldn’t help but hear the obtrusive comments of the surrounding cynics. And yes one of it was—oh well, you can read the first sentence of this post. Aid came over, and the girl was rushed to a nearby hospital. I heard she survived; obviously not because of me.
Talk about a shrinking self-esteem….