BLS and First Aid Trainings for Php 1,100 - For Nurses and Others

Good news!

If you've been wanting to take the BLS and First Aid from the Philippine National Red Cross, here's your chance to get a huge discount. As I recall, the two courses total something like 1400 Php when taken during the rest of the year. But from April 13 to May 16, 2009 these two workshops along with 6 other courses are offered by the Philippine National Red Cross Rizal Chapter at PHP 1,100 only.

The 2009 PNRC Rizal Chapter Training Schedule are as follow:

Courses Offered (8am - 5pm)

1st Week
April 13-18 Standard First Aid and Basic Life Support (CPR)
April 13-15 Care for the Sick & Injured
April 16-18 Mother and Baby Care

2nd Week
April 20-25 Standard First Aid and Basic Life Support (CPR)
April 20-22 Care for the Sick & Injured
April 23-25 Mother and Baby Care

3rd Week
April 27- May 2 Standard First Aid and Basic Life Support (CPR)
April 20-30 Standard Disaster Management Training
May 1 International Humanitarian Law
May 2 HIV/AIDS - Drug Abuse
May 2 Accident Prevention

4th Week
May 4 - 9 Standard First Aid and Basic Life Support (CPR)
May 4 - 6 Disaster Nursing
May 4 - 7 Standard Disaster Management Training
May 8 International Humanitarian Law
May 9 HIV/AIDS - Drug Abuse
May 9 Accident Prevention

5th Week
May 11-16 Standard First Aid and Basic Life Support (CPR)
May 11-13 Disaster Nursing
May 4 - 7 Standard Disaster Management Training
May 11-16 Swimming Course


These courses, with the exception of Disaster Nursing and the Swimming Course, are included in the PHP1,100 price quoted by PNRC. It's a bargain, huh? Anyway, there is an additional payment of 300 Php for Disaster Nursing and PHP 900 for the Swimming course if you decide to avail of those too.

The courses are on First-come-first-served basis so you have to go there as early as now as the slots are all getting full. I'd take the other courses first if I were you because, unlike the BLS and First Aid, those other ones are offered once a year only. By the way, I was told that it would be better to take the Standard Disaster Management Training Course ahead of the Nursing Disaster, er, Disaster Nursing course for nurses so that the latter could be better appreciated. However, if this is not possible, go ahead and take the Disaster Nursing first. These are separate courses and one is not the pre-requisite of the other.

There are but a few requirements.
1. You have to be in good health. Thus, you need to have a physician fill out a medical certificate of Red Cross. You can only use the medical certificate form from the PNRC which you may download here.

2. You need to pay the registration fee (Php 1,100.00 for 8 courses and the additional fees if you are availing of the Nursing Disaster and/or Swimming Course)

3. You need to submit (promptly) your chosen schedule because like I said the slots fill up fast.

4. All courses run from 8 am to 5 pm so be at the venue before 8.

The Training will be conducted at the Rizal High School, Dr. Sixto Antonio Ave., Bgy Caniogan, Pasig City. Application forms for the training are available here. For details please call PNRC Red Cross at tel. no. 631-3592.

Training For Nurses

I've just finished my IV THERAPY Training at the Fabella Hospital. It's been a long and tiresome search for that elusive training. Now, all we have to do is to complete it. Fabella will have 2 IV trainings every month soon. I'm just not sure whether they will start doing that this July. Completion date is a different story. We had to get another schedule to do that. I'm not certain I'd want to go back there for that. It's too far from where I live. Also, a feedback I got from a friend is that when they finally had to complete their cases, on top of their schedule at Fabella they had to have another completion schedule at Amang Rodriguez Hospital in Marikina because most IV insertions were done inside the DR.

Another thing with Fabella is that it is located near the Recto station between LRT 1 and LRT 2. If you know the area, you'd know that there are shanties and squatters there not to mention the road is forever muddy. What we did was to either take a cab or a trike going to and fro.

But the training was ok. They made sure that we knew the basics before they even introduced the skill. Kinda like our NCM lab and lectures. The training room was cold and had the materials we needed. We were given an envelope each which contained the photocopies of the lectures along with a pencil, the green book which will be submitted to the ANSAP, and a notepad. Snacks were served every morning and afternoon. There were 62 of us but the area easily accomodated such a number. The audio was loud enough for you to understand what was being said even when seated at the last row.

The aseptic technique was overemphasized. At one point during the return demo I failed to mention it but had practiced it anyway. I was made to say the step just so it would sink in maybe. Of course I appreciated having been reminded of it but thought that would have been a given since all of us were registered nurses anyway. After I had observed some of my classmates I realized it was needed to be said over and over again.

Oh, we were told that we wouldn't be able to leave without getting pricked. I can still see where it left the mark. Ouch!

Fun At The Red Cross

As you may well know, I've just finished my training at the Red Cross, Pasig Chapter. Actually, I only attended the Standard First Aid Training with 40 other participants, mostly composed of Registered Nurses, caregivers and student nurses. The others are sponsored by their companies. I only attended the Basic Life Support/CardioPulmonary Resuscitation course because I had to have my certificate revalidated since it is going to expire in August of this year anyway. I'm too tired to tell you guys what happened so I'll just let you see some pics. I hope you like them.

From the Standard First Aid Course:

The latest in fashion: A Head piece.


Everyone wanted to brag about their fashion sense so... here they are.



The Bandage Girls...



Sir Isaac as he does his inspection. Such an amiable man. What are those guys doing at the background?

Changing Homes - Plans for the Future

Don't get me wrong. I'm not going anywhere yet. But, someone asked me about my plans for the future. "Well, for one," I said,"I'd be going to the US sometime soon." I'm a nursing graduate from the Philippines and have recently taken the Nursing Licensure Exam in December 2008. Of course the ultimate goal is to go to the US to join my family.

But then, when I come to remember how hard it is for me to relocate, I tend to overreact. I've experienced when I got married. Transferring from Cebu to Manila was not an easy task. What's more, that time I didn't have so many stuff to bring or dispose of. Looking for a place to stay was not so much of a problem though because we had bought our condo unit 6 months before my transfer.

I figure that in the US I'd have the same problems. In fact, it might just be worse if I don't plan ahead. After searching the internet (where else? that's where i do most research I do these days) I found that since I'm not sure of where in the US I will finally land, the links to finding homes in Las Vegas, Houston, and Georgia that I've recently found in the National Relocation , website will prove invaluable. They have information on mortgages, homes for sale, what's there in the neighborhood, schools nearby and other things that I'd want to know about before I even consider relocating.

Las Vegas might be a viable area for me. I like it there. Cost of apartments is cheap, food is cheap and it's very near my parents' place. Plus, there are more filipinos in the city. Well, I don't know why but for some reason I like staying where there are other Filipinos around. The one thing I really must have first is... well... my NCLEX result!