Sick and Tired Angels

Nurses are considered to be the angels in a hospital. Without them no one will look after our sick friend, love one or colleagues and name a few. Their roles can vary depending on the needs of the patient. They can be an advocate, teacher, friend, caregiver or a confidant. Indeed, their immense role is beyond compare.

Some of them voluntarily (only in the Philippines) render their time and effort to take care of the sick without job security or a meager allowance from a health institution or the government. It is unfortunate that nurses in our country are lowly paid. Some few lucky nurses have dizzying benefits which majority wishes to have. Hence, more nurses are fleeing the country to look for better opportunities abroad.

It is sad to note that others cannot appreciate our profession. They thought that we are just busy writing and chatting but they did not know that we are compelled to do that because we don't have a paperless system. All the care, orders, request must be written. All the lab results (abnormal, of course) must be relayed to the attending physicians or resident doctors. In addition, we also attend and look after to the demands of the patient's family which is sometimes more demanding than their patient. And if things go wrong all the fingers are pointing towards us.

On the other hand, we sometimes being berated by the physicians because of failures to do their request or some just wanted to yell to nurses (especially those who occupies higher position).We all embrace the blame, criticism, and the likes as if its part of our job. But it is utterly unfair.

We can not denunciate others to flee or to migrate to other countries because of the ineffective system. There is no change to hope because it is becoming cyclical. No one dare to change. And it makes the angels in the hospital sick and tired. We all need to be look after. We need security. We need better pay and benefits. We need to be cared for us to stay fit in our beleaguered healthcare system.