Nursing a broken system

I indulged in having my nails cleaned through home service. Our long-time manicurist said that she left the salon where she used to work and took on the job of a caregiver's assistant.

Their ward suffered a stroke in the United States, and because home care or a convalescence facility there is expensive, it was decided to bring her back here (Philippines) where she can receive more personalized care even at home but at less cost.

Aside from being paralyzed on one side of the body, the patient is unable to eat solid food and has been fed through a G-tube (a tube inserted in the belly so food, usually liquid nutrition, goes straight to the stomach). Unfortunately, she suffered some complications in the intestine and required surgery.

At this time when hospitals (especially in the National Capital Region) are still mostly full attending to COVID patients, confinement is doubly challenging, aside from being more expensive.

New normal?

Both patient and companion need to undergo a swab test for COVID. When medications are unavailable at the hospital pharmacy, either the companion or some other family member has to purchase these from an outside drugstore.

The medical facility where they were at apparently only had one entry and exit point, and this required passing through rows of tents where COVID patients were being treated.

Another glaring situation is the lack of nursing staff in non-COVID floors. Our manicurist said there were only two or three nurses handling their entire floor! It's no wonder nurses have abandoned their jobs! How can you stay on and work extremely long hours but only get paid salaries that are too embarrassing to even mention?

And this is a private hospital, therefore medical frontliners receive far less than their counterparts working in public healthcare facilities. Even if the nurses were just working the mandatory 12-hour shifts, handling more than 10 patients at a time will definitely take a toll on them, and the paltry sum they receive on payday just does not compensate for the hardship and sacrifice!

I also overheard that these days, while waiting to be attended to at a hospital emergency room, you're already being charged so many hundred pesos per hour. What?!!

Profit vs right pay

The patient I mentioned above was set to be discharged after a successful surgery, but before they could do so, she suffered another stroke and eventually passed on. As is hospital protocol, when a patient goes on code red medical staff will try to revive them.

But the relatives put their foot down. Other than the fact that it would take a further toll on the patient's body, they were running out of funds. Reviving her would mean hooking her to life support machines and that will surely rack up the bill, which already ran to over 200,000 pesos ($4,000) for a 7-day confinement.

Which had me thinking, are hospitals trying to make a profit out of people's health conditions and misery even with this pandemic situation? So sad...

Yet, health care workers are clamoring for pay adjustment because what they are given is not commensurate to the service and sacrifice they render.

With government withholding what they promised health workers as benefits when the COVID started to overwhelm medical facilities, and wages not being enough, many overworked nurses (and even doctors) have quit, claiming they won't have enough to sustain them if they got sick.

The nurses' plight

When my Dad was on prolonged confinement pre-pandemic, I observed how exhausted nurses were in our wing, taking on 8 to 10 patients per shift. They would hardly have time to eat or even go on toilet break unless their bladders were about to burst.

I knew they would be on their feet most of the time running from one end of the hall to the other, making sure patients took their medications on time, got their vitals, answered calls, took instructions from attending doctors, and even assist in bedside care of patients without companions.

Having my own patient to mind, and even with a caregiver, I knew how exhausting it was. Besides, nurses were absorbing a lot of negative energy from both patient and family, especially from critical cases because of the diagnosis, prognosis, and more often, finances.

Seeing how, day in day out, the nursing staff would be run ragged during their shift, I decided to take away as many of their routine tasks for my Dad to help lighten their work load. That meant feeding, giving medication, taking vitals... the caregiver would do them all.

And I took it upon myself to give them food especially those on night shift because I know they hardly get a break even during the wee hours of the night. That's why whenever I would call for assistance when Dad really needed it, the nurses would respond quickly, and it didn't have to be the nurse assigned to us for that shift.

I remember when Dad went on code because he pulled out his endotracheal tube and all the nurses on duty seem to have converged in the room to help out.

While I couldn't really provide financial assistance to the nurses, what I did to make things easier for them while taking care of us was much appreciated and they reciprocated.

So I totally understand how overwhelmed and fatigued these healthcare workers must be during this pandemic, especially those handling COVID cases. And couple that with limited to no benefits and the unimaginable pay they receive, how can they be motivated to stay and serve?

Fixing the system

Whoever ends up being the next president really ought to find a way to straighten out the country's healthcare system. Otherwise, all the personnel will be packing their bags and finding jobs overseas where their services are better appreciated.

And private hospitals, like any business, must take care of the people who are vital to their operations instead of just thinking about how much money to make. Healthcare facilities shouldn't be about making money, but helping people - be it treating the ill, helping them heal, or better yet, being proactive to keep people from getting sick.

Besides, if the system remains a mess, who knows if the country can handle another healthcare crisis like this pandemic in the future. There are so many lessons learned from the last year-and-a-half. These should be put to good use to upgrade response strategies and ensure facilities won't be overwhelmed again over a protracted period.

And part of fixing the system is making sure frontliners will find it worth their while to serve their countrymen in a profession they are good at. They can't all be martyrs, even if they are being called heroes.

Images from Unsplash