how competent can you be?????????????

Just wanna share an e-mail from my friend regarding the not so competent nurses (not all) in the Phils. today. It reads:

Dear Friends,

The letter below is from my daughter in law and family whose father just died from Cancer at one of our hospitals in Quezon City last Sunday, 20th of January 2008.

papano na ang mahihirap na walang kamalay malay at walang pagkukunan?

I HATE BEING A NURSE..........

I am an OFW registered nurse currently working in one of the Gulf countries for more than 10 years now.
I was on my annual leave last October when my father was diagnosed with lung cancer, and upon learning this, we had him admitted in a reputable tertiary hospital, a premiere institution in the management of chest diseases in the Philippines . On the day my father was scheduled for admission, he woke up early and excitedly prepared for his stay in this hospital. He wants to undergo the operation because he knew that he would get better. He was not aware though, of the complications he might encounter after the surgery.

Since we knew that the surgery will be expensive, our family unanimously agreed that he would be admitted in the "charity ward" for the reason that he would just stay only for a few days or a maximum of one month..

Then he had the surgery.

During the operation, and while we were waiting at the watcher's area, the anaesthesiologist talked to us. She told us that our father is intubated and he would need a respirator in order to give his heart a rest. She assured us however that he would stay for only three days (at most) in the ICU and would be transferred in the ward immediately if no complications arise.

While in the ICU, my father's blood pressure was unstable and de-saturating up to 80%. He stayed there for three days with unstable BP. I noticed that his right IV cannula was out already since the site was bulging. I informed the nurse-in-charge about what I saw. He just answered me that the site was "ok".

On the third day that he was transferred to his old room, we noticed that he had difficulty breathing. The nurse-on-duty then checked my father with a pulse oximeter. His oxygen saturation was 74% with a pulse rate of more than 100. He just increased the nasal cannula to10L and that he will inform the doctor.

After hours of waiting for the doctor to arrive and calling the nurse many times to inform the doctor again, my father had respiratory arrest. Since my husband, who was with me at the time, is a respiratory therapist (by the way, we had just extended our leave) we assisted the doctor in intubating my father as the nurses on that ward were just staring and waiting for the code team to arrive. After transferring our father to medical ICU, it was time to return to the Gulf country to work.

My father had stayed in the hospital for 2 months. During this period, he acquired nosocomial infection, bacteria acquired from the hospital because of poor handling by medical staff. The doctors attending to him had ordered antibiotics which cost around 1500 pesos to 2500 pesos, given every 4-6 hours.

Since my father's condition was not improving, they did another biopsy for the surrounding tissues of the removed part of the lung. The results had shown that it was infected already and the new diagnosis was Stage IV cancer. One of the doctors commented that the cancer might have been there since the beginning and even before the operation. Hearing this statement from him upset me because he was initially diagnosed as Stage II only and that it was still operable.

Had we known that he was in Stage IV already, we would not have allowed the operation at all. He could have enjoyed the last days of his life – going to the mall and watching movies with my mother as they used to do before he was hospitalized.

My father was a good man. Everyone has a kind word for him. I could not stand to watch him helpless while bedridden.

He did not suffer because of the cancer. HE SUFFERED BECAUSE OF THE NEGLIGENCE OF THE HOSPITAL STAFF. I would know because I am in frequent contact with my family during all those times.

I would cry with desperation because here I am, a nurse, and I was helpless and could not do anything while my father lied in bed, having difficulty in breathing. EACH TIME THEY INFORMED THE NURSE, IT WOULD TAKE HOURS BEFORE THEY COME TO ASSESS MY FATHER. CALLING THE DOCTOR WOULD AGAIN TAKE HOURS.

MY FAMILY HEARD THIS COMMENT FROM ONE OF THE STAFF NURSES, "YOU ARE IN THE CHARITY WARD. THEREFORE, DO NOT EXPECT QUALITY CARE. YOU HAVE TO DO EVERYTHING BY YOURSELVES, FROM GIVING HIM A BATH TO FEEDING HIM ".

ANOTHER DOCTOR ASKED MY BROTHER WHAT OUR PROBLEM WAS AND WHY ARE WE STILL COMPLAINING WHEN WE ALREADY KNEW BY THEN THAT THERE IS NO HOPE LEFT FOR MY FATHER'S CONDITION TO IMPROVE. (This conversation happened just after my mother in law who is also working in the Gulf country made an overseas call to the Medical Director to complain about this situation).

Why shouldn't we complain? The hospital staff refused to even clean the tracheostomy site or the wound site of the patient. We asked one nurse to give us pain reliever for my father, and instead she gave an antibiotic because he has an infection. The antibiotic she gave was for prophylaxis so my father would not have infection after the surgery.

INCOMPETENT STAFF....

On Sunday, we "gave up" our father to cancer. We had fought since the beginning, we fought a battle against lung cancer, but we lost the war against infections which were caused by negligence and malpractice of the staff around him. I felt so helpless as I looked at my father lying on that hospital bed, hopeless and suffering. It hurt me so much knowing about the things they've done and have not done, the poor management and the very poor quality care they had given my father.

I never worked like them ever in my career as a nurse. I've never neglected my patients. It is an irony that I could not give my father the same quality care I give my patients. I hate myself for not having done anything after seeing all the things they've done to my father and knowing that they were wrong.

How I wish I could just be an ignorant person who doesn't know what goes on in a hospital.

We went to the hospital with hope and excitement, but we left this lung center with despair and anger and my father lying in a coffin.

We are writing this not just for our father, but for the next fathers, mothers, sons and daughters who would also suffer in that hospital. This lung center is claimed to be of high standard quality care, a tertiary hospital, a premiere institution in the management of chest diseases, the last place of hope for the sick. But the hospital we turned to does not have any compassion and sympathy, Their staff do not know how to take care of the patients, from the security guard to the doctors and nurses. It is my first time in my whole life that I felt so small in this world. They made us feel like garbage to them.

I feel sympathy for my kababayans and for anybody who will enter that hospital for they have nowhere else to go.
We had our father admitted in the charity ward, but our total bill had reached more than half a million pesos, excluding the medicines and supplies we buy everyday, spending almost 10,000 to 12,000 pesos a day.

I feel sympathy too for the poor, for those who cannot afford quality care. I just wonder sometimes where they find the 50 pesos they need for the rent of a piece of folding bed for one night in the "watchers area", an area for the relatives of those in ICU where they wait for a call from the staff inside. By morning, these "folding beds" that they have paid for will be taken from them even if they are still sleeping.

I feel sorry for those student nurses and medical students being trained in that hospital for the quality of training that they will have will not be up to international standards. They might not even learn anything at all. I am so afraid on what they might do after they graduate when they start to practice their profession. The staff at this lung center does not even know how to prevent bedsores and are not knowledgeable about infection control, both of which are basic nursing skills.

We had a meeting with the director of that hospital and complained about the situation of our father. NOTHING HAPPENED, OUR COMPLAINT HAD BEEN IGNORED. They told us that an investigation will be initiated to relieve us of our pain, that they will attend to our father PERSONALLY. A few days passed after this meeting but we never saw even the shadow of this female assistant medical director who even cried with my sister during this meeting.

MY FATHER IS ALREADY DEAD AND WE JUST BURIED HIM YESTERDAY.
I feel this is the only way I will be heard, and so I ask everyone for their help, for those of you who will read this letter to pass on to your friends and families so they would know the present condition of the very poor health care system in our country, OUR BELOVED PHILIPPINES.
I hope something might come out of this and pave the way to change the health care system.
FROM NAME WITHHELD,
RN, Doha , Qatar

HOPE THIS LETTER WILL SERVE AS AN EYE OPENER FOR OUR FUTURE NURSES.