I had the fortune of having 2 friendly ladies, C and S to attend to me for my physiotherapy. We had a great time chatting during my breaks.
C was seen chatting with a male therapist, presumably from her home country, in a different tongue. I smell complaining... hah. Must be going to quit soon.
There was hardly any local therapists. The Chinese lady physiotherapist who attended to me on my first day sounded Malaysian. When I saw K, I was like, wow, are there any locals here at all??
Therapy assistants were mostly foreign too. Could S be the only local around?
I must count myself lucky to have S as my TA. There's a Filipino TA who minded only her own business. So much so that when a therapist asked her to help transferring a patient since she was nearby, she kept rejecting, saying she couldn't because she didn't know how to help this patient. Don't think I will enjoy my time with people having unlovable attitude.
The lumbar support belt is very popular here.
Nurses
Mostly from Philippines. Myanmar is next. Local nurse? *Thinks hard* I-think-zero.
The nurses here are basically busy being maids. Taking patients to toilet, bathing, feeding. There aren't even dressings to change for most patients!
It doesn't take a nurse to do these tasks. Which is why it's here that I see a new breed of nurses. Actually, I don't think I can call them nurses. Their nametags say "ward assistant". I would want to believe that they have been adequately trained in their job scope, but sadly, it doesn't seem to be so.
I had the misfortune of having this particular nurse in charge of my ward sometimes (they rotate wards). She looked very young and petite, but good thing was that she's packed with strength. Being from Myanmar could justify her poor standard of English, but the hospital should have set the bar higher... or they thought that was fine since 87.5% (sampling population of 8 i.e. my ward) spoke no English. I think she was having trouble if my sentence was longer than 3 words. I tried to avoid burdening her with complex requests like "stack the 2 pillows horizontally behind my back" because I couldn't gesture to get my request across.
The first time she transferred me from bed to commode chair was harrowing. It was stated clearly that I was a 2-person assist, but she attempted on her own, despite potential help being a request away. I could wait, you know! Or was it that people don't help their colleagues there? It's not so bad if she could transfer safely like the therapists, but her technique was out of the world.
Up till now, every other person will position the chair parallel to the bed. Not her. She placed it perpendicularly. Then she dragged me by my bottom and turned me 90° until I was also perpendicular to the bed and then pulled me out into the chair, all the while back-facing the direction of movement. Not a very good idea when she had to support my back while pulling at the same time and with the softness of the mattress especially near the edge! She didn't find this more difficult meh?? Don't know learn from where.
The subsequent times were less scary because I had been there, done that.
One day, K the OT saw what she was doing and stopped her. He taught her the proper way and also advised her to ask for help in future.
Could it be that nurses here are not trained in transfer?? But she's the only one with weird techniques... hope it's just her.
There was another incident which I pin it on the general inflexibility and lack of cooperation of the staff although the same nurse was involved.
It was shower time and I was waiting for my turn as usual, but today, I needed the loo urgently. I pressed the bell and she asked me to wait. I did, but all I saw was her taking patient after patient to the bathroom. She has no intention of taking me to the toilet is it? Upon seeing her emerge from the toilet, I pressed the bell. Again, she told me to wait. I suggested letting me go first or she could bring the bedpan instead, but she still said wait! Ask her toilet no space is it, she didn't answer. Now, I was not sure whether it was because she didn't understand my chim England, was afraid that some grumpy old bitch was going to complain if she got skipped, some hard fast rule that patients must be bathed in one sequence only, or that no other nurse should take on a patient assigned to another nurse (this must be true, who wants to do the work of another? But couldn't they swap? Paperwork? Scared kena if something went wrong?). I tried my best to wait, but there's obviously a limit. I spammed the bell. I knew she was ignoring me - I could see her avoiding my bed. Like I cared. I don't act like a bitch without a good reason.
Another nurse came, and insisted the same thing - WAIT. WTF is up with their obsession with whatever that is? Since this nurse could understand English, I made it clear that I MUST GO NOW (final warning, or wash the bedsheets - didn't say this in case you were wondering).
A few seconds after the nurse left, I spammed the bell again. Shall do that till I get my way. I was almost contemplating just crapping it all to make them regret it. But... I still had to sleep in this bed, so...
The Myanmar nurse finally relented and came for me. Or maybe it was just my turn already.
Nurses were either unhygienic, lazy, act blur or plain blind. Once, after the bedpan was removed, I thought I felt some wetness on my bed - don't ask me what the offending liquid is!! Surely she would have seen it while helping me put my pants back on? And I had to call to request for a change. Think they would change the bedsheets? Fat hope! All I got was a new draw sheet. And if I hadn't been explicit, she would be happy to walk away without changing my clothes.
It's a pity that the nurses didn't encourage rehabilitation consistently. Telling a capable patient to relieve herself in diapers even when the patient expressed her wish to go to the toilet, is unacceptable. It's discouraging, humiliating and passing the cost of their laziness to the patients - diapers cost money you know!
Things were not as bad as it may sound. A few nurses were pleasant and most of them were ok. Just be understanding that they were just overworked people.
Attachment Students
Ah, they are a god-send. The innocent kids before corruption by the system. Things were so much better when they were around. Those poor kids had to come in at 7am. They helped with pretty much everything the nurses did - brushing teeth, bathing, feeding, toileting, e.t.c. It's like things were comfortable only when the staff number doubled!
I had to ask the students whether it was taught in school that patients need not brush their teeth at night. They were shocked at my question. No such thing! So, it's the hospital's SOP, and so far all of the hospitals I went to, have the same practice?
Students were the best in hygiene. Once, I accidentally dirtied my bedsheet with beef gravy and they changed the bedsheets!! I swear those nurses would have pretended not to see it, or just wiped with (my) tissue paper if they were actually bothered by it.
They even "stole" wet wipes to clean me with after I used the bedpan (they didn't know they weren't supposed to). Super touched! *thumbs up*
They accompanied the patients and even trimmed nails. Finding things to do. I noticed the nurses all disappeared.
Back to reality when the students leave at 5pm. Or when they had some assembly to attend.
Doctors
Just an occasional visitor. Life wouldn't be any different without them. Must easily be the most eng posting one could ever get.
Understaffed
Nothing new. It was simply impossible for the therapists to see every patient everyday. So those who were immobile or disinterested get just a few minutes, while patients like me enjoy more value for our buck. And the hospital really needs more nurses. I get a nagging feeling that many patients don't actually need diapers.
Curious. Is standard of care across different ward classes/types the same? I would expect B2 to be the same as C as we share the same floor and consequently, same staff. Do the private class get a better staff to patient ratio? If not, it will be super cheat money! Just the aircon to improve everybody's mood, slightly.
Heard that half the staff left after my discharge. Sounds exaggerated, but nevertheless, even 1 man less can have a devastating impact on the remaining employees.
Underpaid
I wouldn't expect good pay in such an organization. Whatmore when cost-cutting is visible even to the patients.
The bonus was so bad that C and S couldn't help ranting about it over physiotherapy. For S, it was like $50?? The increment was some super duper pathetic amount too, forgot how much, but I would have taken it as an insult. S was seriously contemplating leaving already.
Confirm C going to quit also lah... although she never said so. Tsk tsk.
Act Blur!
"Don't do it if it's not your job!"
This mentality extends to the cleaner too. I wanted help to get my cup cover from my table, and a cleaner was just passing by, so I called out to her. I was still new and didn't realize she was the cleaner... All she said to my requests were:
"I don't know!"
Told her where the cup cover was, but she just said "I don't know!" and ignored me.
Puzzling... to give her the benefit of doubt, maybe she didn't understand English.
~~
Cleaner and supervisor looked at the fan's blades.
Cleaner: Rusty lah.
Supervisor: It is dusty! Dusty is our fault!
That cleaner is a joker lor! That black, fluffy coating looked nothing like rust!
The following weekend, the fans got cleaned.
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