On Memory Enhancers

Tomorrow is our semi-finals exams and I bet I'm going to be really busy again cramming (hahaha)... but I bet cramming would only work if I had photographic memory but fortunately I don't. For years now I have been searching for a way to improve my memory because as a nursing students I have a lot of stuff that I need to memorize like normal level of hemoglobin or different drugs used to treat a disease and all of that stuff.

I have tried using memory enhancers like glutaphos but it doesn't seem to have worked for me. Well I did pass pharmacology with all those drugs and their classifications (thank God!) but I don't think that taking glutaphos has helped me pass pharma. In fact, whenever I take glutaphos I just sleep and I don't even get to study.

Anyway, glutaphos is just a vitamin supplement that contains vitamin B12 (as they call brain-food) and such. So why waste on money and risk damaging my liver when I could take Vitamin B12 from normal sources like meat, dairy products, and eggs. And glucose is the best brain energy provider and I can't agree less. I just love eating chocolates when I study!

So in the end, there is no short-cut to get a better memory without facing some consequences. Drugs may give temporary solutions but it will take something in return from our body because like any other drugs, there are bound to be adverse reactions.

So for me, eat healthy and sleep early... but where does studying go? Good question...
Nothing beats studying weeks before and reading ahead I guess.

Where's My Laptop?

Who would expect that I could be so super absent minded... Like I am so frustrated at myself. I was fixing my stuff: my papers, ballpens, etc and then I went outside the library to take my lunch with a friend. As I was going outside the library entrance I suddenly wondered why my bag was so light. It then struck me that I left my laptop in the library!

I then hurried back to the library thanking again all the heaven and saints that it was right where I stupidly left it...

Moral Lesson: Always look out for your belongings... especially your laptop... grrr...

Weekly Evaluation: Medical Rotation

This week was a full of firsts for me. It was my first time to have ever go on duty at Madonna & Child Hospital and it was my first time to have been under my current clinical instructor and practicing clinical instructors for this rotation.

Although everything was new to me, I was able to adapt and carry out my nursing responsibilities. I was also blessed to have been assigned such wonderful patients who were very cooperative and very welcoming. I really did not feel awkward as I stayed in their rooms for the whole day as their student nurse. I was also quite glad that I didn't have to chart any nurse's notes (because it takes so much time, not to mention effort ^_^) and all that was required of us was a sample nurse's notes.

For this week I had two patients. A 6 day old baby girl with septicemia neonatorum and a 51 year old woman with pneumonia. I am glad that they are not that toxic and that they are already getting well.

For both case, it is important to note the presence of a bacterial infection. So basically the medications that I have administered had a common factor, which of course is being an antibacterial medication.

The baby girl had to have continuous phototherapy because she had jaundice caused by hyperbilirubinemia. I of course had to protect the eyes by securing an eye shield. I'm glad that the baby's vital signs were all normal during my shift. I am very edgy when I am with babies (especially newborns) because they are so delicate and one false move from me like failing to regulate the IVF properly could cause serious complications like hypervolemia and cardiac overload.

For my patient with pneumonia, I made sure to position her in a moderate high back rest to promote proper lung expansion and I taught her deep breathing and did chest physiotherapy after nebulization to promote removal of secretions.

So all in all this week was a very productive week for me. To add to my enjoyment is the fact that I wasn't late for this week of duty! Yeay me! I made sure to have set my clock at least 1 hour before the pre-conference and I agreed to carpool with my dutymates so that I would have more reasons to wake up early. ^_^

Being A Nurse

Being a nurse isn't about grades.
It's about being who we are.
NO book can teach you how to cry with a patient.
NO class can teach you how to tell a family that their parents have died or are dying.
NO professor can teach you how to find dignity in giving someone a bed bath.
A nurse is not about the pills, the IV's and the charting.
It's about being able to LOVE people when they are at their WEAKEST moments and being able to forgive for ALL their wrong and make a difference in their lives today.
NO one can make you a nurse...

JUST YOU

This is a very nice message that our beloved clinical instructor, Ma'am Asne, has given us. It really has made an impact on me. Truly, being a nurse is not easy. The job itself is stressful but you also have to deal with patients who are in pain and who needs understanding even if they mistreat you out of their frustrations of being sick. It's very demanding indeed. But I will try my best to meet the expectations of a nurse who is compassionate, competent, and committed to my career and vocation. I pray to God that He may give me the strength to move on even if my body and mind are almost at it's limit...

DownloadHelper

There might be a gazillion reasons why Mozilla Firefox is the best web browser and one of these reasons is that it is the only web browser that you can fully personalize. Anyway, this post is not about Mozilla Firefox but rather about it's media download extension that is very helpful and easy to use (not to mention supports a lot of sites): DownloadHelper.

You can download download helper here.

That is of course you are a Mozilla Firefox user, if not you better replace your old slow and not very innovative web browser. Just search for my download Firefox button at the side to start experiencing the web in a new and much more exciting way.

Gosh I sound like a product spokesperson! Anyway, I used this Firefox extension to download anime videos from www.crunchyroll.com and boy was I satisfied! The Wi-Fi internet connection at the XU library sometimes turns off so my video streaming also gets cut off.

Besides, it's faster to download a flash movie than wait for it to load. And if you want faster downloads use DAP as your download accelerator. You can click here to download DAP.