Manning the ER on New Year’s Day

A Cebu City Medical Center nurse checks on a dengue patient in this CDN file photo. (CDN PHOTO / JUNJIE MENDOZA)

A NURSE’S STORY

While most people celebrate the coming of the New Year and enjoy their “Media Noche” with their family, there are some of those who spend their time on this special day working.

Jan Errol Duazo, 30, a nurse who mans the Emergency Ward of the Cebu Provincial Hospital in Bogo City is one of them.

Although Duazo regrets being away from his family to celebrate the New Year with them for about a decade since he worked as a nurse in a public hospital, he has learned to accept it because it is his job.

He said for 10 years as a nurse in a public hospital, he had already forgotten the last time that he stayed home in Taytayan Hills, Bogo City, for Christmas and the New Year.

“It is chaotic and sad. There are a lot of patients, and all you want to be (at that time) is to be at home with your family,” said Duazo, who is the youngest of three siblings.

Despite this, he is ready for any eventuality or any type of patients who are expected to be treated at the hospital after the clock would strike 12, ushering in the New Year.

“Prepare for the worse is our mindset,” said Duazo, who is a job order employee and has no bonuses when working during the holidays.

Duazo said that if you come to work not knowing what to expect then you would be surprised with the kind of patients that you would have.

However, he is looking forward to having no patients when New Year comes.

He said they would have then the chance to gather and eat together with his colleagues at the ER to celebrate the New Year.

With the Bogo City having only one hospital, he is expecting patients to be treated at past midnight.

He cited the number of patients for consultation daily at the hospital which is 200.

He also said that Bogo City had one of the highest number of motor vehicle accidents in December 2017, with 150 cases.

He said that most victims were drunk during vehicular accidents.

“There are only few who are still into firecrackers but mostly would go for drinking sessions in this season,” he said in Cebuano.

He has always been careful in handling patients after a complaint was filed against a group of nurses including himself eight years ago, who were blamed for the death of a patient.

He said that the complaint, however, had been resolved.

He also summed up the qualities that a nurse should have — passion, critical skills, and being ready for everything that might happen.

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