An NGO Nurse on Infection and Prevention Control: Back to Basic Healthcare

I am always grounded on Florence Nightingale's Environmental Theory that utilizing the environment can assist the recovery of the patient. As the Founder of Nursing quoted, "it will take 150 years for healthcare services to be appreciated." 

"Alcohol rub return demo" 

Now, the Philippines has experienced one of the greatest blows during the COVID-19 pandemic. We ranked 20 among other nations that are still fighting against these unseen enemies. Looking back at history, it was the year 2003 when we had SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) and after more than a decade, we are hit by this another dreaded respiratory disease. 

The country was taken by storm. One infected person after another until it spread uncontrollably, and rose up to national emergency level. Unfortunately, the country was in chaos and it took a while to reorganize although in the micro-level, efforts to contain and mitigate the virus were felt.  

This is where my story comes in. I am a nurse by profession and before I came back in Cebu, I was a practicing nurse in a hospital setting in General Santos City. It was an 18-bed capacity hospital but sometimes reached beyond its required level. As a monitoring unit nurse (equivalent to Intensive Care Unit except that we don't have a mechanical ventilator), our patients were all over the place in South Cotabato, therefore it gets overwhelming. 

 

I Responded to the Call

I never thought that I would be tap to manage the Infection and Prevention Control training to 10 different barangays in Cebu City. In other words, I teach and train barangay health workers in a non-pharmaceutical manners and ensure that they follow and share these health protocols to the barangay residences.

"With Maam Malou, Cebu DILG Cluster Head Designate" 

Helping the Healthcare System in the Micro-level

What is alarming and common in each barangay that I interviewed is that their nurse to population issue is a shocking 1:the total number of residences. 

To illustrate, one nurse is assigned in a barangay health center catering to 84 sitios/purok with 42,000 population. Normally, a BHERT Team consists of the Barangay Captain, Councilor who handles the Committee of Health, BPSO, and BHW. With this composition, the team is likely to respond, in an ideal setting, for 5000 population. If there is only one nurse then this ideal set-up will most likely to remain ideal.

Directives and Response

One unique directive that was released in the Cebu City Government is the release of Expanded BHERTs. Simply, the barangay can decide to expand the team which can involve the CSO (Civil Society Organization), and other volunteers.

"BHERT Training with Brgy. Pit-os" 

The Cebu City Government also poses the BIN (Barangay Intelligence Network) that enables the reporting if cases faster. They also further the hiring and the deployment of contact tracers to barangays to mitigate and control the spread of the virus.

With all these efforts from the government, it is still best to keep in mind the importance of proactive cooperation from eavh individual. I believe that to solve this pandemic, our greatest defense is to be mindful and careful to prevent the spread.