Free Screening by DOH Philippines - Cervical Awareness Month

HPV is the most common sexually transmitted infection in both women and men which causes cervical cancer. According to World Health Organization (WHO), cervical cancer ranks as the second most common cancer affecting women worldwide with 500,000 new cases and 250,000 deaths each year. In the local setting, there is an estimated 12 filipino women die due to cervical cancer each day.

In honor of Cervical Awareness Month, the Department of Health Philippines will give a 

FREE screening for the whole month of may for women ages 21 and up.

Every WEDNESDAY for METRO MANILA

Every FRIDAY for LUZON

EVERY TUESDAY for VISAYAS

Every THURSDAY for MINDANAO

Kindly refer to the photo for the list of hospitals.

For more information, Kindly call: 6517800 locals 1751 & 1752

BABAE, MAHALAGA KA! MAGPA-SCREEN NA!

Information Link: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=623805294297393&set=a.157979910879936.38217.156566631021264&type=1&relevant_count=1

Read More

The Love For Mental Health

                 

 The Quest

Since when I was a child, I always had a strong interest and deep curiosity with how the human brain works and I always wondered why some people acquire mental illness and why others don’t. I always had this feeling of sympathy to these people that I thought of a mission that one day I would give them the love and care that they deserve and with that goal in my mind I pursued Bachelor of Science in Nursing as my college degree here in the Philippines. Of all the clinical rotations I had in my duty days, I find myself more interested in patient teaching and creating a therapeutic relationship with the patients was more fulfilling to me and soon I realized that mental health nursing has not escaped from my heart through time. I really enjoyed my psych rotation as a nursing student wherein I had enhanced my active listening skills and critical thinking and made me believe in the whole "authentic presence" approach to interpersonal and therapeutic communication. It came to my realization that whenever I come across a patient as a person, rather than as a patient, they would easily open up and ease down the walls that they have built within them to hide their fear from stigma and endless discrimination. I then had the chance to sneak inside of their lives for just a moment and I believe that is the true essence of patient care. Psych Nursing allows me to understand and appreciate the person as a whole, not just a person with illness or disorder.

Why this field?

People with mental illness are the ones that had been forgotten by the society or like wanting to forget about and this reality is really sad. I want to take care of patients that no one else wants to care for, these patients deserve the right treatment without judging them. I want to inspire these kind of people. I want someone to look at me and say “because of you I didn’t give up”.

Lesson

In return, my patients taught me a lot about life, that we are all the same, that we will end up on the same road no matter how life treats us.

Mission

Let’s all raise mental health awareness. Being mentally healthy is more important than being physically healthy. You couldn’t get into the motion if your mind won’t let you. Your mind affects how you think, how you move, and most importantly how you live.

Let’s end stigma, these people doesn’t deserve humiliation from the society rather they deserve love and affection from people who believes in them and from people who they believe will help them start again.

Personal Mission

I would like to leave a legacy in this profession wherein I can give a positive impact on the professional development of nursing in this special area which is mental health and could change people’s lives dealing with mental illness by helping them and believing in them that they could overcome their illnesses and can start a new life again. I also started this blog site as my way to express my love for mental health and personal development.

APA badge

About: This blog post is dedicated to American Psychological Association’s Mental Health Blog Day Event. This blog tends to give importance to people with mental illness and raise the mental health awareness in the society.

Read More

Mental Health Month Blog Event

The American Psychological Association (APA) will be hosting a blog event for the fourth time on 

May 15, 2013 to celebrate the Mental Health Month.

     What are the goals of this Event?

1. Raise Mental Health Awareness
2. Educate the society regarding the importance of being mentally healthy
3. End and overcome stigma
4. Transform discrimination to fairness and justice                                                              

      Bloggers are all welcome to participate and share their insights, opinions, and experiences regarding mental health. They are also welcome to share their ideas about prevention of mental disorders. 

Check out www.yourmindyourbody.org to know how you could participate in this event. The American Psychological Association (APA) will grant you a special badge that you could put on your profile/blog as a symbol of participation to this great event.

                                                                          

You wouldn't know how many people can be enlightened in this event. Your published article in raising mental health awareness goes a long way and certainly goes through the hearts of those who were merely forgotten by the society. So, I hope you could all participate on May 15, 2013! Save the date and promote this transcendent event. Cheers! 

Read More

Vital Wonders of Lavender Oil

Do you know why many people call Lavender Essential Oil as the “Universal Oil”? Lavender is commonly grown in the Mediterranean. French people derived its name from the word laver which means “wash”. Lavender oil is concentrately extracted from the flowers of a Lavender plant (Lavandula angustifolia) by the method of steam distillation making it more potent than the plant itself. It is commonly known by many people as an essential oil because of its long medicinal properties, and  often used in aromatherapy for its many beneficial use.

Lavender oil is known for reducing tiredness or stress, relieving tension, and lessening a person’s feeling of anxiety and depression. When it comes to skin disorders, Lavender has anti inflammatory and anti fungal properties which really can help in reducing skin infections naturally. Lavender oil offers different forms of solutions to these kinds of dilemmas:

1. Lavender oil can be used by applying it into a handkerchief or a tissue and placed it near you while you work or sleep. Lavender aromatherapy may lessen the activity of the nervous system, thus allowing you to have a better sleep and obtain greater quality relaxation. 

2. Lavender oil can also be used while you are taking a bath if you are experiencing joint and muscle pain; it is usually preferred that you keep the water running. Unlike many essential oils, lavender oil can be used directly into our skin, so it will not cause irritation at all. When you bathe in the water where the lavender oil was added, you get the chance of letting your skin absorbs the lavender oil, good for treating eczema, acne and skin infections. Moreover, its also known in having the capabilities in healing cuts, wounds, and injuries.

3. Another useful way of using lavender oil is to place it in an oil burner and allow the heat to gently pass the fragrance into the surrounding, allowing you to inhale in the relaxing aromas and the medicinal compounds which are present in the lavender oil. 

4. One important use of lavender oil that many people know is it ability to heal burns. Lavender oil gives us many ways and many benefits when it comes to healing and soothing burns, and if application is done as soon as possible, it can take away pain and assist in healing. Having an advice from your doctors, it is proper to state that you should not try treating a heavy and serious burn, especially on children with anything except for water. 

The history behind the discovery of this wonderful oil as a treatment for burns is an popular question for many people. In 1910, Rene Maurice Gattefosse; a French chemist and perfumer, burned his hand while working inside his laboratory. The only oil that was near him was the lavender oil, so without doubting, he let his hand plunged directly into the oil. Much to his surprise, his hand was healed quickly and the pain was eased immediately.

Lavender may earned its name because of it's medicinal properties, but it can not take place of correct medical burn treatment when it is necessary.  Lavender is safe for every age because of its natural properties. You can find lavender oil in your local aromatherapy or medical supply store.

Read More

Contact

For general inquiries, article suggestions, and friendly messages, please get in touch using the form below. 

Read More

Dealing With Incivility In The Clinical Setting

Whether or not you realize it, bullying or incivility is everywhere. Including the workplace. No matter where you work, there is going to be that one individual that is very eager to see you fail. Their aim is to undermine and intimidate anyone who may be weaker than them. 

While senior or long employed nurses don't command newly hired nurses to do consequences, but they usually involve themselves in aggravating behaviours and irritating actions to observe how long these new nurses can stand into the unit. Harsh situations are already happening in nursing areas, this involves the failure to have uninterrupted meals or restroom breaks, they have no time to set some personal appointments. Due to fear of punishment, depressed and bullied nurses tend not to verbalize disappointment and grievance to nursing administration. The continuous shortage of nurses does not allow for the costly loss of nursing staff due to undesirable disrespect and incivility in the workplace. We all know that nursing management is very distressing, with safety of the patient and maximum care at the focus of decision making when observing and managing staff and staff interactions and cooperation. Nurse managers and staff nurses must become aware of incivility does not only affects nursing satisfaction, but also ultimately putting the patient safety at risk. I think that nurses who are experiencing bullying or incivility are hesitant to ask for help or ask questions resulting to increased possibility of errors in patient care. The nurse leader's sole responsibility is acquiring information and understanding knowledge regarding the common types of nurse bullying behaviors and the roots for these behaviours. Additionally, the awareness and understanding of nursing administration cause intolerance for negative treatment among peer groups and support for staff willing to speak against bullying or hazing. Zero tolerance of horizontal hostility in nursing is advantageous to the whole nursing system, moving towards improved staff satisfaction and morale and resulting in decreased nurse turnover rates. 

The journey of nursing towards reaching a goal of respect as a profession among members and other disciplines is lessened by horizontal hostility or simply incivility, nurse managers and nurses must undertake a new period of improvement. Nurses are caring, magnanimous individuals with the capability to think critically and make changes for the improvement of the profession and the safety of the patient. 

I also believe that nurses need to bring back the voice that was taken from them and speak their truth that the hid for a long time for the fear of penalty. It’s one of the nurse’s most powerful tool. In this kind of environment, it wouldn't seem like conflict and contest would be the solution to better nurse relations. I believe that it is all about breaking the code of silence. It guides her to define and say what she’s undergoing and the depression she is allowing, explain why it disturbs her, tell what she likes to change and alter and make it clear what the consequences are if she doesn't.  The backstabbing and hateful talk stops if nurses speak their side and go to the main root of the problem.

Assertiveness really guides us nurses to be more professional and that’s what we really are, professionals. Remember that you were not born to be bullied. You don’t deserve it. No one does. Don't blame yourself for the other person’s attitude towards you. In fact, this person may feel vulnerable or terrified by you, and may feel the need to drag you down.

Read More

Book Review: The Drucker Lectures: Essential Lessons on Management, Society and Economy

Knowledge productivity was then considered as the border on achieving management as Peter F. Drucker’s said during his timne. He argued that someday, the society will work through their knowledge and not with their backs. It is good enough that Rick Wartzman clearly shown, with this book, the ideas and insights of Drucker on his talks and lectures. The book revealed today’s situation as what Drucker described during his time.

As quoted from Drucker on the beginning pages of the book, “Knowledge has to be improved, challenged, and increased constantly, or it vanishes.”, the book helped its readers to increase their knowledge, to be more engaged with the society and to be more productive constantly. The book explained the ideas of Drucker which is good enough because readers could easily visualize their current situations and realize what they are doing with their lives.


With the help of this book, people will learn, thus increase their knowledge. Wartzman thought of the book as a “tool” on achieving Drucker’s idea that knowledge would give big part on achieving proper management in the future.

Proper words have been used to explain clearly the points of the author to the people. Wartzman discussed the explanations of the different lectures of Drucker very well by extracting the real meaning Drucker has. It is good that Wartzman organized the lessons per chapter. Another factor which added to the goodness of the book is its systematic ways of identifying the essentials from not. Also, he made the book entertaining to its readers by relating them from the time during Drucker. The book let its readers feel like bringing the past today and having Drucker as an adviser or professor on a management class. One part that supports Wartzman feeding the imagination of its readers is when he briefly narrated the life of Peter F. Drucker at the beginning chapter of the book.

History helps the people on understanding today. It is also good that Wartzman relate the management of the past and the present. Through his ways of discussing today’s situation by dealing the past first, the readers can clearly see the differences of the both times and realize how knowledge affects the management of productivity the people have.

The book helped its readers to understand their current situations. It revealed them some reality points which unfold some questions in their mind. The book answered why poverty do exists and how management could cure or help the society today. Good management has something to do with the improvement of the societal status. As what has been discussed in the book, it affects the man’s way of thinking, action and response on the issues (problems) they would encounter. Wartzman can be considered as good writer as he explained, through this book, the visions and perspective of Drucker who is known as someone who has significance with his words.

The knowledge being taught before such as Peter F. Drucker’s lessons helped a lot as it serves as a tool of knowing the root cause of the current issues people experience today. The book reached its goal on touching human minds by bringing the past to the present.

 Nursing Administration

As a nurse manager, a lot of qualities should be applied on the workplace. To have a good management of people and good management of productivity, having the idea and knowledge of the skills about management is the best tool in order to have a developmental organization. As a nurse manager, being visionary is a very important aspect. For planning, relating it with Wartzman, dealing with the organization’s history would help me to strategic plan for my organization, making sure that it is process oriented, with purpose, and future directed. In organizing and staffing, setting goals for my staff on a daily weekly monthly basis and making sure that they will meet these goals. In directing, I know that as nurse manager I should promote teamwork within my staff as we also have to work with doctors, dieticians, pharmacists, and other healthcare professionals. In evaluation, performance of my staff in the workplace is an important factor to deal with, making sure that they provide good quality care to patients should be emphasized. I believe that performance evaluations is a great tool wherein I as a nurse manager has the opportunity to connect in a deeper level with my staff, making sure that I deal with one nurse at a time, for them to have a better understanding in the unit and for me to have a better understanding on their position and concerns. Being a good listener, taking suggestions from the staff which I know will enhance the work quality of my team are factors in building a good positive relationship with them.

To sum it up, being a nurse manager should have a vision to make things better and be committed enough to see that all the organizational goals are met in a span of time and by having a good management on the organization and giving emphasis on patient safety and quality care

Read More

The Person on Purpose

How can you discover your life's purpose? Definitely, it’s not your career, your job, your hobbies etc. Absolutely, I just want to ask why do you exist in this world, is it because you have your own purpose in life? Did you know that you can make a big difference by learning what it is? You have your goals that you need to do before everything else turns out into nothing. If you are the kind of person who doesn’t believe that you have a goal in life, it’s okay. It won’t prevent you from knowing and realizing that you have purpose here in this world we are living to. Finding yourself is not easy but if you really want to know what your purpose in life is, let me teach you some tips on what I have read from one of my favorite Journal writers (Steve Pavlina) 

First, you must not think about anything. Make your mind clear from any confusions, hatred and problems that are insisting on troubling your mind.(Including the idea that you may have no purpose at all). There are many ways to know your purpose in life. If you follow the process, you will have more chance to expect it to work. It will not prevent you in finding the answer as long as your mind is settled and focused into the process.

Here are the steps:

1. You can open a word processor here in your computer with a blank page.
2. Write at the top, “What is my real purpose in life?”
3. Write words that come into your mind reading that question.
4. Repeat step 3 until you write the answer that makes you cry. Absolutely, that is your purpose in life.

 

Done? You can cry and cry, it doesn’t matter if you are strong but believe me you do have a soft and a kind heart inside your true personality. I know that for other people this is boring, but I can only question them that have they tried it? Or are they really interested to know what their purpose in life is? 

It’s okay if some of your words are similar, you may even re-write your previous answers. You can write down whatever comes into your mind. During the process, after writing many answers but still seeking or searching for the right answer you get tired, That’s normal but don’t stop, push yourself into writing, just focus and relax and be with your own self.

You may also discover some of the words you’ve written down that gave you a little bit of emotion but didn’t make you cry at all. Well, take note of those words; underline them as you go along. When you’re getting these kinds of words, it just means that you are getting deeper in the process. Go with it. Don’t stop.

I prefer that you need to do this alone so you can focus on yourself more. If you don’t believe it, I suggest that you start with “ My life is useless” or “I don’t have a purpose” then start over there.

My own personal experience in this test:

My family

Before I started this test I locked my room, I also turned off  anything that contributed any noise in the place. Everything around me was absolutely silent and I can’t believe it, its like the environment cooperated with me. I started by following the steps and it took me almost 15 minutes until I reached my answer. My final answer is to give my family a wonderful life, to give love and not asking for anything in return and to live my life with full of peace and happiness. 

Knowing your purpose in life is the easy part. The hard part is making yourself in the path where your purpose is.

 

Just try this and only you and your heart is needed in this test. Nothing changes until you change.

Read More