August 3 Weekly Roundup: The Hard-Knock Life
Updated: Aug 3, 2020
Today’s headline depicts every Filipino nurse or medical frontliner’s mood today, as people continuously underestimate the challenges and difficulties that they face during this pandemic. Last week’s article was a pretty optimistic one, where we excitedly announced all of these news that benefited our nurses. Who would’ve thought that last week’s happiness would only be short-lived?
For starters, the Philippines’ number of COVID-19 cases has already breached the 100,000th mark on August 2, 2020. This is in conjunction with the Department of Health’s report of a record-breaking 5,032 new cases, bringing it to the national total of 103,185. Despite the “jump” in recoveries, the number of new cases is continuously increasing. In fact, the Philippines is already in the 26th spot in terms of number of COVID-19 cases, based on data from the World Health Organization.
Various medical groups attribute the continuous increase to the gradual easing of quarantine restrictions starting last June. Many hospitals in NCR and other regions have already maxed out their capacities, and nurses and healthcare workers are constantly expressing their exhaustion at work due to the growing number of cases. Several medical associations appealed to the government for a return to the stricter ECQ (Enhanced Community Quarantine) versus the current GCQ (General Community Quarantine) in NCR and other relevant areas. This, however, was initially met with rejection of several government officials, including a Senator who even mentioned that medical frontline workers must simply “do their jobs better”. Unsurprisingly, this comment has generated a backlash among health care workers and non health care workers alike. Last night, President Duterte has finally heeded this call by reimposing an MECQ unto NCR and other areas for fifteen days—but not without reprimanding the medical community for causing a public stir in social media.
No amount of good news will be able to cancel out the pain and anger that nurses and health care workers are feeling right now. But just to help everyone lighten up a bit, here are some things that you might want to do:
1. Watch entertaining vlogs of 2 popular Filipino nurse vloggers. More and more nurses are getting into vlogging, but Tito Nurse and Nurse Even top our list. Tito Nurse is a pediatric nurse in Davao who grew to popularity because of his funnily dubbed scenes from movies or TV series. Recently, he’s been posting quotes and short videos to complement these, which we’re sure will entertain you just as much. On the other hand, Nurse Even is a Filipino nurse who’s now working in the U.K. You’ll surely be able to relate to his short videos depicting common scenes at the hospital. Recently, he’s been producing informative videos about his profession as well. These two nurses post new image or video content almost everyday, so checking in on them can give you the dose of laughter that you need in these trying times.
2. Send your name to Mars. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration has launched a “Send Your Name To Mars” program which allows individuals around the globe to “fly” their names in its mission to the Red Planet in July 2026. As of July 31, the Philippines tops all the other countries in terms of number of sign-ups, garnering a total of 1,219,358 name submissions. With everything that’s been happening in our country, I think that these Filipinos want more than just their names flown to Mars. You can send yours as well by visiting https://mars.nasa.gov/participate/send-your-name/future.
3. Consider applying abroad. We may not be able to send you to Mars (sorry!), but we can send you to the U.A.E. or the U.S. if you like.
We have vacancies for HAAD / DHA passer RNs in 24 Care, a health care institution in Abu Dhabi. If you are an RN that has passed the HAAD / DHA and has at least 2 years of focused / combined experience in M / S, ICU, PICU, NICU or Ward, then you may email your updated CV and HAAD / DHA pass letter to eunice.laynesa@abba.ph. You may also visit https://applicant.abba.ph/vacancy/f7d3bv for more details.
We also have vacancies for NCLEX passer RNs in the U.S., as we are currently serving a 28-year old nursing contracting agency based there. They will be holding employer interviews on August 12 – 14, and 19 – 21, 2020 for NCLEX passer RNs with at least 6 months of post-license experience in the adult care area of a tertiary hospital with at least 100 beds. You may email your CV and NCLEX pass letter to usa@abba.ph, or you may also visit https://bit.ly/2Pbva7K or https://tinyurl.com/AbbaUSAAug2020 for more details.
I was tempted to include “listen to Taylor Swift’s new album, Folklore” in the list, but her songs—though amazing—may not give you the good vibes that you need at this moment. Hopefully, these three other things will give you some ray of sunshine: If not, then I just pray that the coming week will turn out to be a much better one!
