You can never go wrong with kindness!

saving these nuggets of wisdom from my ethics mentor, Dr Angeles Tan-Alora.

Non-violent compassionate communication is expressing your need or stating one's observation without judgement.

One Big Fight for Health and Rights for People living with HIV

VSMMC KAAMBAG Clinic commemorates the 2021 International AIDS Candlelight Memorial with an AIDS QUILT Exhibit at the lobby, virtual testimonial and candlelight memorial on #SOTTOLive #TatakSOTTO on May 21, 2021 (Friday) and free drive thru/walk thru HIV counseling and testing on May 22-23, 2021 at VSMMC in front of the OPD building.  

Register now at bit.ly/vsmmcHIVtesting for your free HIV test today!

https://sites.google.com/view/2021-iacm-hiv-101/team

SHAPE UP LIVE LONG

 

Today we celebrated another of our small victories, but this time we were competing with ourselves.  We were making good choices for nutritious diet, regular exercise and health lifestyle.  

With our REHAB MED
Dr Lohindren Adorable

SELF CARE SAVES LIVES! 

Whoever thought that self-care is self indulgence? Self-care is difficult.  The things we need to do to take care of ourselves are triply difficult in this "instant" culture when people search for that magic pill to lose weight.  We need to put in the time, the effort, the determination to make things work. 

As healthcare providers, we cannot give what we do not have.  We cannot drink from an empty cup so we need to rest, relax and recharge so that we can refill our cups of energy and health.

As healthcare providers, we need to practice what we preach.  We need to walk the talk.  Knowledge is not enough.  Practice makes perfect!

Meetings as Two-Way Streets

My friend Pierre pointed me to this article and I am grateful I read it:

How to stop the same people from doing all the talking and other strategies to keep your meetings on track.

This talks about COPE.

C - captain, having a meeting leader with facilitation skills

O - outcome, know from the outset what you wish to achieve from the meeting

P - process, how to get to our destination, this is local speak I equate with "completed staff work" and adequate planning for the meeting 

E - equity, an equal opportunity to speak.  Listen, validate and redirect.

During EXECOM meeting I felt that I was squeezing so many things in that needed top management approval and for many weeks, the others just let me do it.  Fearful of taking up too much time, I prepare slides to make sure I get direct to the point and refrain from telling stories.  I use my voice to raise the concerns of healthcare workers around me.

I guess maybe it 's time I take a step back to allow others time to shine and avoid dominating the meetings.  Of late, we finish after dinnertime and end up hypoglycemic, sighing relief at adjournment.

I learn a lot of communicating and facilitating skills from these meetings such that when people can't seem to agree in one topic, we set that for a side meeting for further discussion, to be able to move on for the interest of time.

Every problem has a solution.  We just need to sit down and talk about things.  Meetings are opportunities to thresh things out to come up with the best solution, but everybody has to pitch in and make sure each person carries his own weight in work. 

Ay'g kompyansa, bai!

Early on in the COVID19 pandemic this song addressed a lot of myths and misconceptions better than I ever hoped to do in English.  This also helped me a lot with my Cebuano. 

 

DUNGAN

Dungan ta'g barog

Dungan ta'g saka

Sa mga pasulay kay dungan gyapon ta

Wa ni'y urungay

Wa ni'y biya-ay kay kung magpadlong

Aw dungan ta matay

Ay'g kompyansa bai kung di ka gusto mamatay!

The thought behind the lyrics still reverberate today after more than a year living with COVID-19 in the new normal.

Dedicated to our post-graduate interns and medical clerks who have begun their face to face duties, ayaw intawn mo magpabadlong!

Writing my COVID-19 Story

I was musing about why I write blogs.  It feels like an adult version of my grade school diary and high school journal.  

My mother taught me that I should either have a child, plant a tree or write a book as a stake into eternity.  I've already planted several trees but I doubt if I would still have a child at this point in time. My best bet would be writing a book.

So let's talk more about writing.  COVID-19 frontline healthcare workers would have their own story to tell.  So do patients and COVID-19 survivors.  Hence, there is a proliferation of research journals on COVID-19 accessible for free.  Qualitative research tells us these stories and lived experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic.  At the same time, institutions have begun writing books to tell these stories as well.

1.  Would you rather maintain a blog or write a book or conduct research? Why?

2.  As a healthcare professional, what would be your motivation for writing?

3.  How would you advice healthcare professionals who are contemplating on starting a blog or writing a book?

The Vaccination Journey of the Chief Implementer

FEAR OF THE UNKNOWN.

As the DOH rolled out the COVID-19 vaccination drive dubbed as "RESBAKUNA - kasangga ng BIDA", there were so many apprehensions despite more than a year waiting for the vaccine.  People have a tendency to fear the unknown so that it was difficult to gather support for the VSMMC COVID19 Vaccination Team. There was also vaccine hesitancy due to the traumatic experience with Dengvaxia a few years back.  Our national vaccination program had not yet completely recovered from that experience, so that it became a challenge to roll out a novel vaccine against this novel virus called COVID-19.

Many healthcare workers themselves questioned the safety and efficacy of the vaccines.  Many healthcare workers had preferred brands of the vaccines, stereotyped against the "generic" versus well known brands of vaccine companies, whose vaccine supply were simply beyond our reach.

DO NOT LET FEAR PARALYZE YOU.

Luckily, we still had brave public servants from among our ranks who volunteered to serve in the vaccination campaign for VSMMC frontline workers.  The eyes of the nation were on us as we were counted among the first in the country to receive the donated COVID19 vaccines.  It became doubly difficult when we had to deal with supply and cold chain management, risk communication challenges, new information technologies for masterlisting, vaccination trainings and management of adverse effects following immunization.  The trainings were so intense as we had to rapidly absorb new knowledge like a sponge to educate target healthcare workers on the risks and benefits of getting vaccinated against COVID19 regardless of the vaccine brand depending on what was available.

MOURNING INTO DANCING.

As we overcame each barrier in our journey to vaccination, the logistic problems began solving itself one by one.  Plans were laid out and approved by central and regional office and coordination with PNP, FDA, members of the media, and other stakeholders were ensured. We also had to deal with plans of organizing ceremonial vaccination with VIPs from Central Office to show their support to the vaccination campaign.  While their support is much appreciated, their physical presence added to the pressure and diplomatic work.  

However, as the first wave of vaccinees, aptly nicknamed as "influencers" flocked to get vaccinated, the mood in the vaccination area was super charged with an air of hopeful joy, such that the most common AEFI was Tiktok dancing (even with our Medical Center Chief Dr Aquino) and posting on social media of selfies with colorful bandaids on their deltoid, also known as the RESBAKUNA pose.

THE FIGHT GOES ON.

Vaccination provides us an additional layer of protection against the unseen enemy called COVID-19.  Giveaways during the vaccination campaign were boxes of faceshields and face masks with the loving reminder to continue wearing face masks and face shields, observing physical distancing and practicing frequent hand hygiene - minimum health protocols to prevent transmission of COVID-19 to our loved ones.  We continue to be warriors in this fight against COVID19.  May we keep in mind that vaccination is a personal choice.  We should not condemn those who decide to get vaccinated, but we also should not ridicule those who decided to wait.  All in all, we need to remember that to beat COVID-19, we should treat each other with love, by not allowing yourself to get infected and not infecting others as well. 

Ampo and amping!

#BeatCOVID19

#WeHealAsOne

#SOTTOVax #RESBAKUNA