Archive for the ‘Morality and Ehtical Issues’ Category

I’ve been working conscientiously in a small hospital here in my province as a volunteer nurse. Its been almost two years since I started working and I received no salary or allowance. I placed the strain on my own pocket and I don’t really mind, the experience that I incurred from the institution is more than enough. Nevertheless, it is but human for me to work for my own survival. That is, becoming income-generating somehow to provide for my daily needs since my finances are dwindling and I find it inappropriate for me to ask for assistance to my parents.

So I decided to work as a part-timer at a certain office. I didn’t really cared to inform my nurse superiors cause I found it unnecessary. Just as long as my part time job wouldn’t interfere with my hospital duty, I am perfectly fine—that’s what I thought. When my superiors in the hospital learned about me having a part time job, they called my attention. When I heeded their call, I was not given the chance to air my side or if I was, it was despised and all they want to make me understand is that I should be dedicating myself to my duty as a nurse in their hospital.

Right then and there, and without, at least, a modicum of consideration I was made to choose between my two jobs, the one that pays or the one that doesn’t. I can’t seem to understand their level of thinking. For me, their reason was apparently absurd. I chose my part time job, took my employment certificate and said to myself “gone would be fine”.

Fortunately or unfortunately, most often, nurses witness how much patients suffer because of pain. I bet a lot of nurses find it hard to deal with this. We are taught about non-pharmacologic techniques to provide pain relief. When asked on what to do, we can give straight answers right on the spot. But there’s more to pain than just the physical discomfort. What’s more difficult to act on is the psychological and emotional side of it. When these situations just pop, we find it difficult to find the right things to say. We stammer, stutter and grasp for clichés to give comfort.

This happens because most of the time we become too engrossed with the responsibilities we have to the ‘physical’ person. We put so much time and effort making sure that they don’t crash, they get well and go home. I am definitely not saying this isn’t important, but not to the point wherein we see our patients as mere cases, plain bodies with failing systems that we have to revive. There lies within them an ‘emotional’ being that longs for genuine, compassionate conversations. Hiding in there is a soul that seeks for another who’s willing to take an extra mile to bring them heartfelt encouragement and hope.

John Maxwell said, “People would not care how much you know until they know how much you care.” Maybe that’s something we should start reflecting about.

Have you ever wondered why we hear a lot of arguments in the Philippines regarding birth control? I guess not. Clearly, it’s because we’re a catholic country, in fact, the first in Asia, and sadly, we can’t solve our problems about overpopulation.

If you’re a nurse in the Philippines, most probably you would conclude that family planning is the best way to eradicate our population problems; being nurses, we are equipped with the knowledge of how family planning works. I am a Filipino nurse, but it’s different on my side. For me, family planning is a short term solution of a problem that is a threat to our country for the next twenty years or so. Why not explore the roots of the problem and really uproot them?

We might not notice it but we’re impelling towards incrementing deterioration. Nowadays, Filipino youngsters enjoy watching themselves become “foreignized;” they feel popular if they belong to the circle of what I call “half-cooked aliens.” They tend to imitate other foreign cultures and one of those, and probably the most alarming, is sexual liberation……. That’s just an example of a lot of deeper factors that contributed to the country’s bloated population.

To the responsible authorities: “target the core.”

As a Filipino nurse I am very well informed about how birth control works but as a catholic I am strongly against such. Over population is not really the problem, it’s immorality; immorality that resulted to over population. What the designated people are doing right now are solving the problem from head to body only; its roots remain and from time to time it will still grow making their solution useless.

Filipino youngsters today are so much attached to premarital sex and with the promotion of condoms and other contraceptives their “misinformed sureness” hiked up and even indulge themselves further. But when these contraceptives are not available and the urge becomes irresistible, they would care less and do their thing without it. And then after the short blissful moment the unwanted happens—pregnancy; to some who aren’t ready to start a family yet, another immorality steps in—abortion.

I believe serious or even coarse education is key. You see, these contraceptives are useless if the user doesn’t have any orientation regarding its proper and ideal use. More importantly, the perspicuity of how Filipino youths have despised the value of morality, perhaps the result of their crave to belong to what they call “in thing,” should be seriously addressed.

When it comes to birth control, there hasn’t been a bridge that proves an amicable relation between science and religion. For a time now, birth control has always been one of the subjects frequently debated by its promoters and the church.

Filipino nurses, living in a known devout catholic country, are faced with this immense morality issue. Being both catholic and believers of science, most are quite indecisive and ambivalently sandwiched between the two tremendous entities.

I am a catholic, Filipino nurse and I utterly respect God’s unfathomable powers but my stand is somehow inclined to the science side. Though it sounds ironically sanctimonious but truthfully, it is otherwise. With the exception of abortion (which I strongly oppose), I don’t see anything bad about birth control. Sometimes they coin birth control as a form of killing, but that’s not always the case; unquestionably, abortion is, but my stance regarding the issue is more disposed to what is, I believe morally acceptable.

As early as high school we learned that life/conception starts when a sperm and an egg cell unite; and as a man of science, I know that the concept of birth control is preventing such cells to unify. Knowing that, I can see no act of killing. My humble point of view is that, science could be a tool of religion for mankind to deeply understand life as how God wants us to live it….After all isn’t there such a thing as “Going forth and OVERmultiplying?”

I don’t know if I should be posting this but might as well indulge myself and get involved for conversation’s sake. This unlikely experience happened when I had my OR duty. It was a mistake that involved both a doctor and a nurse.

It was a night shift when I had my duty (I was a student then). Despite the cold weather outside, the OR’s air conditioning unit was in full blast. From the cold atmosphere, a warm bosom could’ve been useful. It was a calm night and there was not a single operation done. The OR that night gave an entirely somnolent environment. And true enough, all the staff was asleep—or that’s what we thought.

From the student’s area I went to the OR 3 with a group mate to get something. It was dark in that part of the OR and as we quietly approached the door we sensed something moving on the OR table. We looked closely in the small glass mirror in the door before we entered and as our eyes adjusted to the darkness of the area our hearts almost skipped a beat when we saw a supposedly private encounter. A liaison in motion— a surgeon and a nurse doing their thing in the OR table. A warm bosom mustn’t have been enough that they considered something fervid and fleshly. ;o)

We left the area unnoticed and decided to just keep the incident to ourselves. Both the doctor and the nurse have families of their own and we never wanted to be home-wreckers of any sort.

In the Philippines or perhaps anywhere in the world, it has been socially accepted that the well-off gets the best treatment in any events and the poverty stricken otherwise. There are a lot of instances wherein we could conspicuously see how this mentality works. Take for example the soap operas in the television. Usually, there would be a rich character and a poor one. And if you are one of those soap opera addicts (meaning watching it diligently form beginning till the end) then you would clearly see how the poor people are being exploited, battered by the society. In stark contrast the rich are leading a lavish lifestyle and receiving the best treatment.
Such mentality applies to almost everywhere in our society and is easily seen in our day to day lives. As a nurse I could see it in the hospital too. Based on my observation, when a nurse knows that a patient comes from an affluent or influential family, a bell would ring in her mind that every move should be perfect and every care should be planned to please the patient. Nothing or no one should make this patient angry or else. On the other hand, when a nurse knows that a patient is a marginalized member of the society and financially incapacitated the same bell in her mind would ring that the treatment could be petty, light or worst, carefree. I have seen this mentality ever since I was a student nurse and unfortunately have continued to observe this behavior in the hospital.  Look at it this way, two patients are admitted with the same condition, same age, same sex, everything is the same except for one thing, their economic status. Of course, the rich gets the treatment first and the poor, if not next, then last. That’s how this distorted mentality plays out. Now back to the situation, take away the money issue. Everything is fair now. How would you treat both patients? Fairly, I bet. Without money, no one is above the other, we are just human beings.
I am only speaking on what I have observed. If you are above this distorted mentation then you are to be commended.  I for one guiltily admit that I too have the tendency of having this sinister bell ringing in my mind. Nevertheless, it’s only up to us to overcome this mentality. They say money makes the world go round; often times true, but let this adage be of no effect when it comes to healthcare deliverance. Money should not be an issue.  Health care should be a basic human right, not just a privilege.