The Bully War: Tales of Violence
Hello my lovelies! I am back with a very personal and quite serious article about how I realized what is my dream job. If you are a postgraduate student struggling at deciding where you should apply, then be sure to read this article and who knows, it might open your eyes. Now, let’s get started shall we?
It was in 2016 and I was just starting my last year of high school – graduating year. I knew that in October we had to start filling out the forms about which university we plan to sign in to and send our applications but at that time I had really no clue! At first I though that I would go to Bratislava and study Koreanology, but when I checked their site it said that it’s not opening and instead it’s opening Sinology so no luck for me. But really if you think about it, if I went and studied there I would probably get hired by some company as a translator which is NOT what I want. Yes, I am a drama translator but I consider it as my hobby and form of relax. Many people laugh at me that I can combine useful thing with a hobby and make a living out of it but that’s not for me.
My second option was teaching and be like my amazing mom – Yvette1004, but there is a difference between wanting to teach and have a talent for it. Not once was I hired as a tutor for other kids as my past and present is filled with english every single day. It was then that I realized that teaching is not for me. Many would say that maybe I just didn’t choose the right subject to teach but really….I am a very impatient person who explains things very difficultly. It’s a very hard thing for me to comprehend that others cannot understand what i’m saying because I understand it perfectly. So the teaching option was cut out pretty fast.
I had only these two options and I cut both of them out so what now?
I was in a misery for a very long time and I simply tried to focus on graduation which in many countries is called maturita. I studied like crazy and while I was at it I watched k-dramas of course to clear out my head from the long studying sessions.
7th of November the first episode of Romantic Doctor Teacher Kim crossed my MDL list as I tried to find something new to watch. I call it faith at what happened next….
The first episode came and it caught my attention but it wasn’t till second or third episode that I was really hooked up on this very unique tv series. Before this drama I have seen medical series before and actually they bored me a bit? It didn’t excite me as this one so I was shocked myself. I fell for the characters but most importantly the new patients that came in almost every episode. I watched how the staff worked as a team and did everything possible to save the patients lives. It was a very emotional ride for me that I remember to this day even though I’ve seen this tv series 2 years ago.
But which character stood out the most for me?
It was doctor Do In Beom and head nurse Oh.
Doctor Do In Beom is a character which is very greedy and wants to please his father who is also a doctor. He starts with a journey on sacrificing others in order to get his reputation higher but as he meets the staff in the new village hospital his mindset completely and slowly changes. We see that he is not perfect like we or even he thought. He is slowly lowering his head and accepts Master Kim as his teacher. He realizes that in his profession the most important thing is the safety of every patient and it does NOT matter if the patient is a homeless or VVIP.
Nurse Oh is from the start a very elegant and practical women who lives the profession she does! I imagine that from the moment she wakes up her only thought is to save the patients on the ward (which I know that IS crazy). She is very skilled and shows that in every episode which made me just gawk at her in utter shock. I was amazed that she knew so so much stuff and for me she was as important as those doctors. If doctors are the blade then she is the handle of a scalpel.
But who really is nurse Oh?
In reality she is a scrub nurse which works mostly in the operating field. In reality the hospital has staff divided in two sections. The staff that works in surgery room and the ward staff which works with patients that come in or are after some operation so in real life it’s not possible for her to be a head nurse, only a scrub nurse (since she can’t get two monthly pay-checks, right?).
So back to my daily life!
I was watching the tv series and I was talking with mom about where to apply and which major should I chose. We were in middle of conversation and she was talking about teaching and koreanology and suddenly I said “What if I try to be a nurse?” and I can still remember her face. Her eyes went wide and she just stared at me shocked and speechless.
“You know, it’s good that you found this tv series and find the job appealing but on the other side we have the reality. Are you good enough to pass the hard subjects like Anatomy or Physiology? Also, since you were a child you were terrified of needles and hospitals overall. Are you sure that this is not a momentary confusion?”
I didn’t know actually.
Was I really prepared to face the hard major and finish the school? I decided that indeed I will give a try and applied to 5 universities which ALL of them accepted me. Along my studying materials for graduation exam I started to study Biology as well as I had to take entrance exams and I managed to nail them, which was very shocking to me.
I was scared, but I also had a plan in my head. My motivation was head nurse Oh which showed me that nursing can be an amazing job and that the tons of studying material are WORTH it.
So, the hard ''maturita/matura'' came and in the end I finished it with straight A’s and I was the top student as I was the only one with such results. The summer holidays came and instead of going on drama marathons I started to seriously prepare myself for the university. I had a lot to catch up….but what?
“What should she catch-up to?”
Slovakia is a country which has nursing major high schools and majority of universities with nursing majors are FILLED with students from nursing high schools which...I was not from. My major was Psychology & Pedagogy. That’s why I had lot of catching up in order to get to the same level as those students who studied 4 years of general nursing before and now want to obtain a title.
I still didn’t catch up to them completely, but I am very near.
Many people asked me what type of a nurse I want to be and my only answer was pretty clear – scrub nurse. This time it wasn’t all about nurse Oh but more about myself. I was always interested in surgeries and that’s why I knew that after those 3 years at uni I will need to have 1 year of specialization in scrub nursing.
The D-day came and I enrolled in the university and got to meet new people. In short the winter semester was HELL. I cannot count how many tears I have shed in the exam season I simply cannot. I can’t count how many sleepless nights I had and how many times I regretted my decision. I face subjects such as Radiology, Biophysics and Biochemistry but also Nursing screening and the lovely pearl – Anatomy. In the end with blood running from my nose from exhaustion I passed every single subject.
Our clinicals started in summer semester which I was really scared because I knew the theory but as my professor have said, the reality is completely different then books. My first three weeks of clinicals had started in GS – general surgery which is the ward doctor, Do In Beom has worked and I was thrilled but still scared! People warned me that the work there is hectic and the staff is not really nice and...they were right. The me who took blood once and actually went through a vein of my professor wasn’t happy about the place. I was mocked by the staff and yelled at because I couldn’t do a simple task. At night, I vomited because I feared the next day. I won’t sugarcoat at all, this is the reality ladies and gentleman! We were thrown to the water without knowing how to swim. We had to learn it by ourselves which was not easy at all. But in the end It was kinda good? Because we didn’t have other choice then to learn it by ourselves.
The next clinicals were at geriatric ward and also it was not easy. I had to face exitus which is very hard for anyone to deal with, even the older already skilled nurses. I learned how to clean butts and while many people feel disgusted I do not. I’ve never seen the look of gratitude in any of the patients in GS but here...Even if those people couldn’t talk they smiled with their eyes and that gave me energy to come back the next day and take care of them. I wanted to show them that they did NOT lose their pride even if they can’t take care of themselves anymore.
My third clinical was at gynecology ward and I must say it was the most exciting? No, we were not with babies (they belong to pediatric ward and post labour section) but we were with women who came for masectotomy or hysteroctomies. It was good but what was truly emotional was the day when me and my bestie went to see c-section. And it was see as in really see! We were standing BESIDE the two doctors and they showed us really everything and the moment they took the baby out we both couldn’t hold our tears and cried and the doctors just chuckled. The next emotional thing was the last night shift we had there. They took us to pediatric ward and asked us “Do you want to hold the babies?” and at first me and bestie were really scared because those babies are 7 HOURS old and just so so fragile. In the end we sat in the armchairs and they gave us two beautiful princes and just...tears rolled down. My bestie cried because actually ALL of the babies shared the same birth day as her (yeah, we celebrated her birthday at hospital) and I cried because the baby I was holding had the same name as my deceased brother. It was like a sign from above I guess?
Now, it’s 2018 and I finished my first year of university and my dream is still alive. When the days are hard then I always remember nurse Oh and doctor Do In Beom and I continued to walk up the hard path. I want to thank the tv series for showing me that even someone ordinary can fight for their dream and make it come true. Without the motivation I wouldn’t be where I am now.
PS - Yes, now I can see the fake IV's in k-dramas and the badly done procedures as well!
This article is over and I hope it wasn't too boring and that you have stayed with me till the end! If you have any questions about the job and the studying then message me or comment below and I try to answer those questions. Keep in mind that I am from Slovakia so not all standards are the same ~
