(Un-) Cram Your Case Presentation in 6 Ways

Speaking engagements are still few of the hardest things to prepare for. At least for working professionals with a pink collar job who don’t seem to have a uniform work-time schedule.

               

Few words to all nursing students, case presentations don’t end when the schooling is over. For professional growth and well, for requirements’ sake, it carries forward even after getting a paying job. It’s a little awkward for me to use the phrase “paying job” though.

I have started a clinical job in nursing that doesn’t pay much. But yes, case presentations come in even higher level. The only distinction is that, I don’t get graded for my output this time around.

I together with a group of workmates was actually set to present a case study last 14^th of June. Plus that we work in different shifts, we still haven’t come up with a final case of a patient to present. That was supposedly what we had in line to look for from the time we started our job last November but didn’t. Because of course we are still wise to ways of procrastination. Teehee!

We lived through inconveniences of preparation-- including the inadequacy of time, lack of thoroughly decided options, and uhm, a meticulous supervisor whom we thought would give us flop sweats on the day of presentation.

Drafting, finalizing, brainstorming. Group mates from left to right: Gen, Lily, Mae, Myra

Having only 6 days left to work on our case, we cannot for anything best take the leisure of time or to have like nurses-meet-the-avengers sort of power.  

Here’s what we had to do:

Headstart

We get lesser time each day.  There’s nothing we can do otherwise so we firmly set our day 1 for obtaining consent from the attending physician, the patient and her family on the case presentation.

It really doesn’t need one with a dominant choleric type of personality to dictate what is to be done. It only takes one small act of leadership from anyone among the group to begin the work.

Wise Distribution

We arranged the second day for gathering all information as much as possible and assigning each member a task to work on.

While leadership and management styles work differently in each person or group, what is important is to recognize what will work best-- authoritative or lassie-faire especially when on cram.

Delegating, reading, researching (It's always good to combine printed and online references)

Planning

Third day served for planning out how we would want the case presentation to go about.

Whether you’re expecting for accolades or a fair output, there is no good presentation that happens without a single plan or goal of how you'd want it to turn out. Plan out, even for a little. Set a goal, no matter how small.

Inspiration

Day 4 made room for our first day of “The Making” process. Anyone familiar with nursing case presentations would know that it is usually started with a short introduction, and a touch of the patient’s comprehensive health history.

The comprehensive history is for the most part boring during presentations. It is mostly a mere narration of all the information about the patient. So we constructed something that would create a more comprehensible and captivating way of presenting it by coming up with a video reenactment in a documentary film-like format.

The video shoot locations

Like photography, video making is half shooting half editing. And we have encountered more than enough challenges-- who to act as the subject, when to do the video shoot, what editing software to use (and we would not recommend windows movie maker for its unstable file setup) and where to get the balance between work and sleep.

Shooting day. Straight from duty with barely enough sleep. From left to right: Gen, myself, Ariane

Find something that won’t only get you to where you want but will keep you there. Remind each other always of your goal and why no one should give up. It’s not in times like this that counting who has worked the hardest matters.

The production team

Editing and producing. From top then left to right: Ate Darl, Jan, myself, Ariane

Sacrifice

We tuned for finalizing our output and providing what each one had for suggestion on day 5. We gathered in a place that is favorable for our working (with available wall plug, wifi access which became two of our major problems in day 4, and good food, plus good music to set up the positive mood). 

At Trio Cafe'

Everyone has to make his own part of sacrifice by staying up late, passing up a day of rest for the benefit of the group.

Winston Churchill once said, “If you're going through hell, keep going” and that I think inclined us to continue what we started. Each should not give up no matter how impossible things might seem. Even sometimes that means not realizing everything that was planned so you still have to be flexible.

Trust

Finally came day 6, the judgment day should I call it. There was no turning back. The presentation pushed through in, pardon me for a little prate, positive way. Everyone was definitely proud of how it all came out.

The final preparation

Our case presentation was by the way about respiratory failure from acute demyelinating polyneuropathy. We had a refined idea of putting an emotional video for prayer which we took from youtube. Then said a courtesy to the Philippine National Anthem followed by a powerpoint presentation of the introduction, fitted with good visual theme and arrangement suitable for our audience.

Our case

On the Introduction: Justin

On  Anatomy & Physiology: co-red cross instructor, Ivy

On Pathophysiology: yours truly

On the nursing care plan: Alchie aka John Lloyd :)

On the discharge plan and prognosis: Ariane

Next was the creative video documentary film of the patient’s history, plus a moderate innovation in the format of the presentation that includes-- presenting the nursing care plan in a focused charting format, providing a consented and discrete photo of how our patient progressed from her condition.

The idea is to trust in the capabilities of all your group members. It has always been said that two heads are better than one.

Lastly, we didn’t forget to have fun!

The group

The candid shot. What's the sleeping all about?? :)

Celebrations!

Meal get together

Pardon me as well for including our idiosyncrasies and signature pose below:

The "in-love" smile

The "pogi" pose

The "nyora pose"

The feeler pose

             All the memories are worth keeping.

Postscript: The documentary film video mentioned in this post was not included for the patient's privacy. I would also like to personally extend my deepest gratitude to all my group mates and to you who reads this post. Smiles!

Photo Credits:
google (dot) com (slash) images- 1st photo

Blessed John Paul II: Seeking for His Intercession

The calendar flipped another page and began the first of May yesterday. I am due to take an off from hospital duty so I thought for activities to fill in the hours while I am away from pressure and stress. 

Some of my latest obsessions I looked forward to comforting me include buying the latest collection of clothes from a favorite online store and watching the brand-new episode from a favorite TV show. But none of them of course ensconced that something inside was bothering me.

To my mind co-oped the thought that being a nurse is never at all easy. Unsolicited challenges come that test a nurse's ability to handle every situation well without losing the strength to go ahead no matter how hard life gets.

I ran into a serious challenge on work. I would rather not tell the story except for the truth that it affected me so much. 

I swear have never been this negative since but when a situation hits me hard, it's never easy to stand back up and continue the walking. I know how my spiritual side went downhill since the time I forgot when. 

Enough for the cliffhangers. 

What happened to me recently proves again that no earthly things, tangible or intangible could ever make a peaceful heart. 

I just reached the point where I am so desperate to recollect myself and be whole again. But I am forgetting where exactly to start. 

I never expected to catch the first day of May so bad. My eyes were so fluffy. My heart-felt so heavy. 

I had no immediate person to talk to so I simply reached for the rosary without saying a single prayer and my mind remaining cluttered.

It was last year when the Roman Catholic faithful like me dedicated this same day to Mother Mary. It was also the feast of St.Joseph the Worker, the Divine Mercy Sunday, and the day of Beatification of now Blessed John Paul II. Having all these remembered made me I grasp that prayer is always the last and best weapon left. Regardless of why painful things have to happen and never knowing when and how they get solved, it is important to always hold to our faith to the Lord.

Without faith, it is impossible to please God. For he who comes to God must believe He exists, and rewards those who diligently seek Him. (Hebrews 11:6) 

The life of Blessed John Paul II portrayed a good example of faith to God. 

I would like to share this beautiful prayer I used, imploring favor through the divine intercession of Blessed John Paul II:

When God's Answer Doesn't Make Sense

I have been knuckling down myself, volunteering in a hospital for almost eight weeks. That’s nearly two months. And until now I really wonder how I was able to hold down close to months of physical and emotional burnout of working 40 hours every week without pay, and a slight amount of ill-humor from few random people around.

Image taken from weheartit.com

Honestly, that is even far from other people’s experience. But one of the hardest parts of getting through bad situations is when you reach the point where you can no longer balance yourself well. It happened to me in the past few weeks.

I belong to an entire generation of Nurses who after graduating and getting the license hardly gets a paying job in the same profession. Or when we get a chance we have to start from scratch and become a “volunteer”. It’s one of the trending professional misplace these days. Even supposing, I still find it okay. Sometimes we really have to start from the bottom to get to where we want (the top).

There only came a point when I could no longer find my passion in what I was doing. At times I become so ambivalent of whether my motivations for entering into nursing were really right. Or if I ever had a wrong notion about it. 

Going on duty always seemed like a struggle each day. And often times I think of quitting and never coming back to the hospital again.

When my co-trainees ask me what my plans are after the training or if I’d still ever want to work in the hospital, I stutter and trip over my words hoping to find an answer I would not regret. But even I. Even I was racking to find my own answer to the question. 

I didn’t know what to do. I cried each night and found myself always praying that I would never do any harm to my patients despite the inner struggles I was having for weeks.

I’ve never been this negative in the several years past. But adequate enough to say that losing hopes amidst too much negative circumstance shots no one in exemption.

Fun Facts About Your Daily Life!

Can somebody help me clean!!!! l Image by Ron Leishman

This is a sublime and clever re-entry into blogging after all the seriousness in my previous posts. I for sure took you a little solemn-bound with all the ideas I have presented in the past few weeks. But this time, I want to share with you something more entertaining. Don’t you think we deserve some time to let loose?

My first two weeks back to hospital was never that easy even if going back there this time means that I’m no longer a student but a holder of the same license almost "everyone else"  has. The call out to find a steady employment in the hospital summons an even greater problem than just passing the licensure exam. 

Just this July, another set of thousands of nursing graduates battled with the five hundred questions of the Nursing Board Examinations.  Soon enough, thousands again will be joining the jobless crowd in the country.

Despite having the license to work in the hospital, having a sufficient experience would still count. And as a new kid on the block of the nursing profession, I feel the pressure to double my effort in terms of knowledge, skills, and attitude.

I am one of the “lucky” few who were accepted to work as volunteer in one of the level 4 hospitals here in the city. Before we were set out to the different areas of the hospital, batches of assorted policies were oriented to us. It was very demanding of our time yet helpful. 

There is one topic that reminded me that nursing isn’t limited to taking the vital signs, administering medications, and other clinical procedures but making certain that the hospital environment is conducive to every patient’s healing. I’m specifically talking of the Waste Management Program of the hospital where I’m in.  

Constituted in the program is the Infection Control.  The Infection Control Nurse of the hospital encouraged me personally when she presented the topic with humor but with so much sense. She said in her lecture that there are 8 fun facts about infection control:

TWO more Important Wishes

Photo Added by Bubble Guumm on weheartit.com

The calendar says it’s barely 65 days before the Nursing Board Exam. It’s only just 3 days before yet another Barangay election. And the clock says it’s hardly 8 hours before my next review class.

I haven’t done things a scads in days. I've been practically away from all my social networking sites. But just when I have gotten too busy and weary with all the errands I need to run and with the fast approaching board examination that’s taking me a toll, I’ve been thinking of ways to keep my balance. 

I am good at coming up with stress-relieving activities, I could say. Though these days when everything and everyone is dealing with the daily fracas of life, there are just TWO more important wishes that I’d like to ask:

1. I wish that there could be TWO more years for me to stay at the teen-age when what’s top-of-the-line is just to live care-free and own much of my time without hesitations and substantial apprehensions of the future; spending the money I don’t even own, tsk!

2. I wish that there could be TWO more months for me to prepare for the nerve-racking NLE; pretty sure it’s a saving grace for an “immaculate-procrastinator” like me, hehe.

3. I wish that there could be TWO more weeks for me to spend making a very sensible write-up about the nearing elections (I might just be able to help people make at least a rational choice of candidate) and do the rest of the activities for my dear SK just so before I finish my term of service before the year ends.

4. I wish there could be TWO more days for me to hang around with my cousin Ate Eds (who seldom comes home owing to her work in Manila) and my friends Stephanie, Neville, Jayvee, Kevin, Anton, Flor, Lor and Yoram without having have to think about the pile of books left for us to read, again for the Board Exam, whew!

5. I wish that there could be TWO more hours for me to spend for a quality conversation with my parents (despite their busy schedule), I just miss talking to them the way I do now that I’ve grown up already…I suppose, hehe.

6. I wish that there could be TWO more minutes for me to relive the littlest things that are so simple but makes me hugely happy..^^

7. I wish that there could be TWO more seconds for me to say the words “Thank You” to God for giving me all the blessings I have…

…and I wish there could be TWO more lifetimes for me to prove the beauty of life’s existence.

Sadly the notepad says I only have TWO a couple of characters left to get this blog entry done.

I’ll just park the period for now, but there’re surely more to come!

Image Credits:
Bubble Guumm, weheartit.com