THE FIRST DAY

On the night of the 5th day of May of the year 2019, I slept just like I usually do when it’s summer. I
would watch or read until my eyes get heavy of sleepiness. What I did not anticipate is that I would sleep
at 2:00 in the morning and waking up dragging my ass out of bed because of an unexpected turn of event.

I woke up that morning grab the laptop and try to get back with people who left me messages, and to my
utter shock, I was told by a friend that there is an available position for the immersion training at the
hospital. I didn’t know what to do and I realize I need this more than I need my spleen, so I got up and
made a mess around the house.

Long story short, and the first day went on. I attended the orientation obviously late. I tried not to get the
attention of the people inside the conference room, really and because I am born in the year of the horse (I
use this to convince myself, and it always works) I “accidentally” made a noise when I opened the door
and 16 pairs of eyes are all set on me as if waiting for me to do another disturbance. I didn’t know what to
say or how to act and so I directly went straight to the coordinator and handed out my consent. I went to
an empty chair, sit down and pretend as if nothing happened.

We are deployed respectively to our assigned office I was supposed to be in Patient Care Unit 3 (PCU)
and for an unknown reason I was told that I’ll be in Quality Management Division (QMD). At first, I
didn’t like the sound of it. What am I supposed to do in an office that checks quality? It doesn’t sounds
right to me since I really wanted to observe medical professionals on their daily work.

What sounds like bad for me finally made sense when I had my first tour around the hospital. I met
people who are actually medical professionals yet rendered their service in giving their patient a good
service. It is not just checking the quality they also prevent infections and on a daily basis monitor every
nook and corner.

THE SECOND DAY

I was oriented in the Quality Improvement and Patient Safety, one of the main tasks of the QMD. I
learned that it is more than quality, above everything else is safety. That everyone is guaranteed of their
safety and the main goal of the institution is to have a safe environment for everyone and a quality
healthcare.

During the day I went to the different environment of the hospital where different cases are treated
specifically. Every day you could see us checking and pointing out the proper waste disposal: Black is for
dry non-infectious substances; green is for wet non-infectious; yellow for infectious; and red is for sharps
and syringes. We also emphasize the proper hand hygiene before and after seeing a patient. We call it
“The Five Moment for Hand Hygiene” this are the following: Before Touching a Patient, Before Aseptic
Procedure, After Body Fluid Exposure, After Touching a Patient, and After Touching the Patient’s
Surrounding. The “before” is done to protect the patient from pathological organisms from you, and the
after’s are done to protect you from the patient. Now this is real love.

I was also thought about the Chain of Infection: infectious agent, reservoir, portal of exit, mode of
transmission, portal of entry, and susceptible host, respectively.

I learned the different coagulant that is used to prevent the formation of blood clots, and the anticoagulant
drug that inhibits the clotting of blood.

THE THIRD DAY

I was thought on how to monitor and rate the hand hygiene of the healthcare providers and monitoring the
Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) compliance. During the afternoon of that day we are briefed on
‘The Patient Influx Drill’ where we are told that we are going to act as patient in the coming Friday.

I was on the round when I was introduced in the different tubes and catheters.
 THE FOURTH DAY

I helped out in cutting tags that will be used in the morrow.

THE FIFTH DAY

The day has come. Off all the injuries I can get I had the excessive bleeding, well it’s better than having a
Dead on Arrival (DOA) tag on my chest. Everything was not I expected. I thought that the nurses and
doctors will be more serious, really I even tried to cry but to no avail it only made my eyes puff and made
myself a laughing stock

THE SIXTH DAY