I was so worried that I will miss this trip that I set both plastic and human alarm clock..... The plastic ones meant to be my iphone and my table clock, whereas my human one was Ho....my dear senior colleague....
I had been working morning shift for the past 2 days and was worried that I will oversleep... Fortunately, both plastic and human ringing managed to wake me up at 0530hrs, it is the usual time when I wake to get ready for my morning shift. In fact, I reached the hospital early at around 0645hrs, and managed to have a glass of milo and biscuit for breakfast in the ward tea room before going down to the meeting place. We were supposed to meet at the main lobby of IMH at 0715hrs.
My nurse manager Sister Tan and Nurse Ho were too going on this trip... Ho message me on 28th Jan to ask if I was interested in going visiting to the new mental hospital in JB, I returned call to her, mentioned of my interest, the next moment, I was calling the ward to my NM and asking her to register for the both of us..
However, at the start of the morning was not so successful, there was some miscommunication and the bus that was supposed to arrive at 0730hrs ended up arriving at 0830hrs....
The transition through both Singapore and Malaysia checkpoints were smooth, and we managed to reach JB at around 0915hrs.... We then alighted somewhere in JB for Breakfast (Sorry , unsure of the street name...Hahaha). The breakfast shop looked like a coffeeshop style of the 60-70s..with 2 storey. Our co-ordinator actually told us that as we were behind time , we only had 20 minutes to eat... We then went up to second floor, sat down, ordered half-boil egg, egg and chicken sandwich, coffee and tea. Then my eye caught something on the menu.... it was shown at the top right hand corner : 20 minutes of waiting time to be served
OOPs , How to complete our meal in 20 minutes when they required 20 minutes to prepare....!!!
Anyway, we were taking our own sweet time to enjoy our breakfast.....Finally we finished and somemore we " took away" the egg and chicken sandwiches onto the bus... and I "finished" them up....
We managed to reach the hospital around 10plus....we were then wisked to the hospital auditorium for a short orientation on the history of the hospital, presentation about Singapore Nurses Association by Dr. Xie H.T, Eating disorder by SGH Dr and team and research presentation by APN Mao. R.
After the presentation, we were then invited to have a short makan break just outside their auditorium and the makan: Mee Soto were prepared by the independent working patients of the hospital... I was so impressed. While we were enjoying the presentation, Ho was meddling her camera, it seemed that the camera battery cover was loosen and was unable to close.. We came to a conclusion: we required a piece of scotch tape to stick the cover close.... Ho was unable to concentrate on the presentation, she was so occupied with "where to find scotch tape" I had to reassure her that we will be able to find scotch tape in such a huge hospital....
Thereafter, we were brought around the hospital for a tour.... it was huge...... I was enjoying the wind that blown into the path that we were walking.... I felt so unrestricted...it had vast space ......I felt that if I was a patient who was feeling agitated or frustrated......I would have been 'defused' naturally .....
It was true, there hospital have 'No' rates of assult on staff, patients and visitors.... They don't even use physical restraints.... only chemical restraints were available...
The 1st shop was to the OT department Job Club.....we were introducted to them going down to the basic of helping patients not only obtain a job and most importantly to sustain a job.... They even allow independent working patients to return to a home (similar to a 3-rm HDB flat-F-O-C from their government) that was just next to the hospital... no no I should say, they are more condo, rather than HDB..... Each patient share the apartment, and each have their own room...This will not happen in Singapore... They also have their own plant nursery, the patient have their own 'botanic garden' (big big courtyard for them to also roam around, lie around, relaxing their day....
I was enjoying myself during the touring of the Job Club, when suddenly Ho pull me by the collar and I was pulled out from the crowd backwards..... I was so puzzled, looking at her blankly when she pointed at the office desk of the staff and exclaimed: " SCOTCH TAPE" .. I then saw a tape holder and I proceeded towards the desk, feeling like A thief......!!!! Unluckly, I was unable to take out the tape, I could not find the tape opening......I was nervous coz I was worried I might get caught....
Suddenly I realized the staff was standing behind me AND I just smiled...and asked " Can I have some scotch tape? The staff smiled and offered another scotch tape on another desk... I managed to tear off 3 pcs to secure her camera battery cover..!!!!
During the hospital tour, we saw the acute admitting wards, psycho-geriatic wards, forensic wards..... we were very surprised of their care..... the wards were all on ground-level.... with courtyard fenced up but you don't really feel that you are locked up... the geriatric bed-ridden patients were sleeping a a cot-like bed and not restrained... we are surprised and the staff had told us that there was never fall incident present...which means those bed ridden patients had never fall off the bed...
We even found a small little kitten resting on the sofa in the psycho geriatric wards, they allowed pets there.....!!!!! Their weighing scale was even newer than what we were using....Haiz....
Their nursing counter was spaceous and comfortable, most importantly- air-conditioned while outside non-aircon (patient 's area).
U sure can't believe: their stay in hospital is all F-O-C
There is paying class, they only pay for the difference of Food!!
We also went to the forensic wards, and I was surprised.. their door to the wards were wide-open and we linger around the wards with the patients pacing around us...of Course outside the ward were all fenced up but they did not even attempted to try.... I even asked the staff and they of coursed smiled and confidently said that the patients will not run and it was true..... They had double security of fencing while transporting forensic patients in and out of the hospital... There are 10 types of forms available...
Towards the end, we had a group photo...
After the tour of the hospital, we went shopping in JB and thereafter we proceeded to having seafood for dinner by the sea...Unfortunately, I was disappointed, coz the food served was not fresh..... the crab, fish did not really tasted up to standard... and at the same it was low tide by the sea, thus not really enjoying the view.
After we finished, it was time to return to Singapore.... Again everything was moving smoothly and i was home by 9.15 pm.
(My photos will be available on facebook) - Anita Ng
Saturday, February 23, 2013
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)