Arm the large guns Nurse's. We are under attack!

The Year 2007
The NHS is in Crisis.
Infection run rife through hospital's.
Patent's die in their own soiled bed's.
Minister's deny all knowledge
Chief executive's have gone to ground.
On these grey battlefields, the blame is on...
The Nurse.

Yes folks, we are under attack. And why? Fuck knows. One thing is for sure though, and that as a profession we are under great attack, and have lost respect. An RCN pole was recently for there being industrial action, though this stated was not for strike action. I however think there should be an all out nursing strike where there are no more nurse's on the ward's or in the district. Why?

Because there is too much Nurse bashing going on. Non Nurse's need to be taught the value of Nurse's because at the moment Nurse's are like the battered wife of the NHS. The Medical profession have no respect politeness or consideration for us. Read Nurse Anne's blog here and here and there is a doom like picture portrayed by the media.

90 death's from C-Diff would be the one time where as a profession we could have stood up and shouted, nay, yelled all our concerns on the closed ward's, short staffing and the like of nursing and the danger to patients. There is one problem with that. The perception of health care is based on the 1960's NHS. Doctor's still all wear white coat, Nurse's are nothing more then handmaiden's, Paramedic's are just "ambulance driver's", though interestingly enough rather then having docile patent's these day's they all come in yelling "I have rights's" or roughly translated
Patient: "I WANT SEEING NOW! OI, YOU NURSE, FETCH ME A BLANKET, NEvER MIND THAT PATIENT WHO HAS STOPPED BREATHING! Now where's my consultant? Hmm,who is this young whippersnapper? SHO? THE BLEEDIN' SHO! I DEMAND MY CONSULTANT!
[Stage left, Consultant]
Patient: Ahhh, Dr Consultant Old chap, how are we eh?


It make's my liver fizz that patent's, the one's least likely to have a clue shuffle onto the telly and say "It's like, dem nurse dun wanna do fing's do der patent, an I fink that like, is not right". Cut to the nurse saying "We have been short staffed and have not been able to do our full range of care or be able to provide a decent service". You would see that, though you would have trouble hearing it over the reporter going "BLAH, BLAH, BLAH, BLAH". It's annoying. A Doctor would not get the same treatment, nor would any other industry (ie law, banking etc). So why us? The answer is that we are seen as a soft target. The year 2007 is no time for soft targets. We cannot, nor should not, be soft.

We need to shout, draw attention and educate the public as to the real problems of today's nursing. Until the public realise that why we kick up a fuss is because there are nurse's and nursing students (like me) who genuinely care for the patent's under our care and that there a false cutback's being made that is harming the patients and that we use these blog's as a vehicle in which to inform what is happening, thing's will get worse.

It would seem that there will be no support from Doctor's either. So, we are alone. Let us rise to this challenge, and if we fail, we fail without going quietly.