Hearing and Seeing

November 26, 2007

This morning we went to school for our orientation on Head Nursing. I honestly didn’t know that Head Nursing is actually a subject, or that it’s part of the curriculum. I thought our orientation was about the Communicable Diseases Ward.

Anyway, I really like the lecture, because it showed us clearly who the head nurse really is – what are his or her duties and responsibilities. I was able to appreciate what it means to be a head nurse and what is expected of you as head of the staff.

I’m quite excited about being a head nurse. Of course, I’m also anxious. But on the whole, I’m really positive about it and I’m looking forward to the experience.

Mrs. Doreen Lopez discussed to us the details of Head Nursing. She talked about the general and specific objectives of Head Nursing. She mentioned to us the four management functions of planning, organizing, directing and controlling. She also discussed the Head Nurse’s responsibilities. Actually, there are three head nurses in the ward: HN 1, HN 2, and HN 3. Each HN has his or her own scope of roles and responsibilities. Lastly, she gave us the requirements for the course. We are to secure a lesson plan book and we are to document our experiences in the ward on a daily basis – what we did, what were our duties and responsibilities, our goals, what is the organizational structure of the ward, etc.

Mrs. Lopez also discussed to us the kinds of data found in the Kardex. We had a little exercise about it. We were given a patient’s data and we had to decide where to write those data in the Kardex.

Head Nursing will help prepare us for our work as future nurses. It will bring out the leader in each of us, and leadership is one skill each nurse must have.