We always say ” Health is Wealth” and a lot of people have taken their health for granted. I have friends who have complaint of discomforts, aches and pains and even missed heart beats but they are still at their desk at work. Sometimes i just feel that they were afraid that they will lose their job or maybe they think work will help them to keep their illness at bay. But unfortunately this is not the way. As for me my body will tell me if i am stressed or feeling unwell so i must take action and rest.
Remember that health is wealth but you cannot use your wealth to buy your health so listen to your body and take a break! Have a good rest.

I have a senior friend who like to watch the sunset. We had our dinner at the Food Court at Marina Centre one evening and when i looked up at the skyline across the Singapore River and the Esplanade i caught the pictures of the sunset.

Of late i had been reading about Psychology. It is very wide and complex and cover many areas of our lives. Psychology is all about the mind, cognition, behaviour, perception and extend to many areas of our lives in education, health, illness, interpersonal relationships etc. I am interested to study more about psychology about health which includes health related behaviour like healthy eating, doctor/nurse-patient relationships, patient’s understanding of health information and beliefs about illness. I also like to study how to use psychology to help improve quality of life in relation to health, perception and behaviour.
Of course there is the other part about clinical psychology or abnormal psychology.

When we meet friendly and nice sales person, sometimes we will want to buy things from them. Yesterday my hubby and i went to City Chain at Jurong Point to check on his watch which was not working. We did not have the intention to buy a new watch. The salesperson checked and put in a new battery then it worked but he was nice to tell us that our watch battery is free for 5 years and he did not charge us. Because of that and the way he was so willing to serve us that i bought another set of “couple “watches from him for myself and my hubby. He told me that he gave me a good discount and i believed he did. It is important to treat your customers well. He sold two watches and had made me a happy customer!

My new business is named after my initials TSE = Training and Services for Eldercare.
My objective is to provide quality care for people who wish to be nursed at home.
The other passion is to teach and train people on “Positive Health and Wellbeing”
Presently doing a module on the management of Health and Wellbeing for Civil Service College and Centre for Seniors. I also train the volunteers from Lions Befrienders Service to care for the seniors who stay alone in the community. I am also keen to train caregivers on caring for their loved ones at home.

I am glad i made the right choice to start my own small business and provide locum service to the hospital. Presently i work 6 hours per week on locum service to Alexandra Hospital, train for a 2-3 hours module on health and wellness with Civil Service College and Centre for Seniors, train nurses in Continence Management at the Nursing Homes and provide home nursing care to a small clientelle group. I have more time on hand now - i exercise early morning three times a week, go for line dancing on Wednesday evening, spa once a month, visit my mother once a week, have social time with old friends once a fortnight and also have my Saturdays for my grandson and shopping on weekends. Life is more fun and more fulfilling then before. i had been a workaholic all the time. It is good to slow down and smell the roses, reflect on the pleasures of life and enjoy myself.

My daughter delivered a baby boy on 18/9/09, he is so cute, so adporable and so handsome. I love him lots.

My project to promote continence in the nursing homes was selected in April 2009 and presently working with three nursing homes namely United MediCare Centre, Man Fut Tong Nursing Home and Kwong Wai Shiu Hospital. We received a funding from MOH to run this project for one year. The three teams of nurses in the homes named above worked hard with persistence, perseverance and supported their residents towards continence. To date we had helped 68 residents out of diapers - some 100% and some 50%.
I like to congratulate them for their efforts and as part of the Continence Nurses Chapter we will be awarding these nurse champions with a collar pin for the work they had done in their work place.

Caregiving is indeed demanding and stressful.
We can seek help from the Caregivers’ Centre at AWWA at 9-11, Lorong Napiri, Singapore. The website is http://www.awwa.org.sg
We can also seek respite care at the Nursing Homes and Community Hospitals. Where to find them? Go online via http://www.aic.org.sg
The other website where we can find information on caregiving is http://www.healthnetcafe.com.sg
My friend from US also shared a website on caring - http://www.caring.com
This website shares information on caregiving at home.
Do take care if you are caregiving because we can get burnt out and stressed at times too.

There is a dilemma in providing comfort. Because bureacratic policies limit staff, the time that staff spend with patients is confined to the basic needs of treatment, medications and physical care.The quality of physical care suffers when the paraprofessional is discouraged from taking time to fulfil comfort needs such as a back rub or discussing patient’s concerns. If the caregiver can spend a little time to talk with the older person after a bath or treatment, anxiety , pain, discomfort and depression can be reduced. The nurse is in a very influential position to make a meaningful contribution to pain relief.
The ability to assess pain of another becomes complicated because of differing attitudes and the multidimensional aspects that pain projects. There are no easy answers of how to evaluate, differentiate or judge the uniquely personal estimates of the quality of pain. Pain experiences are highly individualised.
chronic pain presents a frustrating situation for the nurse and an intolerable situation for the patient. Nurses tend to undermedicate for chronic pain because they fear that they will foster addiction. Often nurses caring for the patients with chronic pain in the long term care situations become so familiar with the pain that they ignore it as a means of protecting themselves from feeling overwhelmed and powerless with what seems an insurmontable and futile situation. Frequently the patients with chronically painful conditions are told “to just learn to live with it.” To the individual with chronic pains that is a dismissal and implies a withdrawal of interest and concern.
Let’s be more alert and understand that chronic pain is longsuffering and intolerable so we need to provide even more care and concern to ensure comfort and pain free.