My Nurses Day with Innocence

Nurses Day celebration is over... I got 2 flowers, few vouchers, and few great days to remember. On that very day, i took out my nurses pledge, printed in gold linings. Nicely placed in my file. I read through it, and I recalled the day of our graduation day of the diploma course, as we all held our hands up to say our oath, i was so emotional, excited and afraid about what was coming ahead of me.


H1N1. When it hit Singapore. Our ward, St Micheal was one of the first to be on the front line to screen the visitors and patients. No nurse was scared. Unlike SARS, Swine Flu was not that deadly as many think it is, however, it was not easy for us to convince visitors how important being vigilant is. PPE, Masking, and rubbing our hands with sanitizers were things we had to do, every single day. Limiting the visitors to 2, is very hard for us to restrict especially for patients who are at the edge of his/her death. It was a terrible move for me to be doing this screening as i got so bored, and felt so useless at the automatic doors, taking temperature for all visitors.


Now, St Micheal is converting all our 4 bedded rooms to single rooms for isolation to accomodate the increased demand for single rooms. We had a number of pediatrics patients who are positive for H1N1 flu virus and are staying in our ward. For that reason, I got to get a tint of prediatric nursing.


There was this case of a 7 year old who was warded, who only was tested positive on the 2nd day of admission. She had a 4 year old sister who refused to go to school, insisted that she followed the mother and sister at the hospital. Well, this was such a special case, we had to allow her unwanted presence alongside with the infected sister. Patient's sister was a very sweet and talkative little girl.


I had a day off on Sunday, and when i returned to the ward on Monday. Sister was sound asleep when i entered the room at 1430, she heard me coming into the room and jumped up. She put up her arms to reach for me, "Jiejie, Hug me!" At that moment of time, i really wanted to, but i had to keep myself "clean" as to prevent cross infection. "Wait, k? i will come back to hug you before i go home." "YAY, ok, i will wait for jiejie."


Her face kept popping into my mind as i write my reports.

I went back to the room with 2 cups of Milo. "MILOOOO!", have they tried milo before? They screamed the name of their drink so excitedly. Innocence. Plain, simple and memorable for me.

I recalled when i was young, i first took the aeroplace at age 10. i thought that other countries, are above the clouds. And that there were many layers of clouds. Now that i had matured, i know how gullible i had been.

Yes, of course i hugged her, when she got her drink. And that hug was such a sweet and sincere one.

Its the best gift i got for Nurses Day this year, 2009 along with all the flower notes of thanks from the children...