While my step dad was implicated in the news with this incident.

It was very unfortunate my sisters boyfriend and soon to be fiancie is the soldier talked about here. NB He is not the injured one. Though on the news it is very clinical and cold, I happen to be in the middle of this one.

I always hated the policy of new labour. Messing about with the health service was affecting me enough. Now, its personal.

I wonder if I did not pray enough at some point.

An update

"I find it odd how I have interviews for everywhere but for the hospital I trained". Nursing student, "interview" 13/02/2008
Ahem. Ok, that statement came back to bite me on the ass. I have an interview on the 25th. I believe this could also be on the ward where I was for placement 5. By that I mean the ward I moved on the 22nd September. This should make the interview interesting:
Interview Chair: "So, do you know anything of the ward?"
Nursing Student: "Aye, I worked here did'nt I"
Interview Chair: "Do you know what patients we look after on here?"
Nursing Student: "Aye, looked after half the buggers meself on here lad"

Anyway, I am acutly aware of it being valentines day, so a happy valentines day to you all.

Interview

Today I had the first feedback from an interview. I was interviewed yesterday for a staff nurse in a community hospital in a PCT. The interview went well. I was phoned by the clinical leader today. They said that I had interviewed excellent. I was the joint choice for the post. However, the post has gone to somebody with more post registration experience then me. I know that there is a possibility they were just saying that. However, I have been told that not all is lost. You see, there has been a nurse put their resignation in on the ward. I was told that there will be interviews held again. As less then 3 months have passed the post is not going to be advertised. I may have a chance at this second interview though this is hard to say. I have applied for some more jobs which have become available today.

I am still awaiting the news of the interview which I had last Thursday at another acute hospital. I am not sure how that will work out. The original post advertised was for the MAU. However, there were posts going on the respiratory ward, Haematology ward, Endocrinology and gastric ward. I find it odd how I have interviews for everywhere but for the hospital I trained. Oh well.

And finally...

I have finshied the university!

I now need to:
a) Wait for my PIN number/NMC registration.
B) Get a job.

Of for goodness sake!

I was feeling quite nostagic this morning. I am posting twice today. The first post is the worst one of the two. I happen to be quite a fan of the Dr Rant team. I am sure this morning they may have been interested to know of one of the lectures were on. Service improvement. Stop laughing you at the back.

Now, I am all for the NHS actually getting better. I freverently belive that the key to achieving this is a genuine team effort of all the staff concerned. I too think that, albeit in a reduced role to professionals, that patients individually can shape the care of the NHS services. I say reduced because an idividual can only provide their own perspective. They will be able to give unique insight into an experance which is theirs, and theirs alone. One mans meat is anothers potato (to use the Colloquialism). That a person may dislike the NHS is to negate that some people may "like" the NHS. Additionally, the phallacy of association certianly will not mean that the NHS is not fit for the treating of patients.

It was with a certian amount of politcal unspeak that we were introduced to the concept of NHS service improvement. To say that this was riddled with the influence of the current admisitration is to be an understatement. I have always considered that a fundamental right of the free nations of the world is the freedom to make a choice of what they do. The freedom of speech is a right that we should not take for grated, even if we are allowing ourselfs to be policitcally lead. To cite a quote attributed to Voltaire "Why I May Not Agree With What You Say, I'll Defend To The Death Your Right To Say It".


One of the main thigns was that there was the mention made of the connecting for health scheme. Yup. thats right. The part of the NHShIT project which is currently costing as much 30% of the GDP of Peru. I dont mind that. It was the patronising tone the DoH adopt "Enablers". Oh come on. The patients are at least the last people of the NHS population to ever a) get a say b) Actually notice c) give a toss. Given that the NHShIT project has double the amount of money being spent then the combined disposable income of Germany, this really is not acceptable.

Also, the use of processes, and "systems thinking". Well, the sort of thinking that has resulted in a computer system which is costing 4 times the economic growth of China from 2001-2008. Also, the fact that the average suggestion box to a health minister seems to be a waste paper basket, how do any of us stand a chance. I recall when there were a few nurses who "suggested" they not have a 0.009% increse which was resisted while the NHShIT computer system cost more money then was taken through taxation, funding and minted during the Ottoman empire.

Or when 12000 doctors "suggested" that the "improvement" of 10000 less doctors was not a good idea. I guess the government were more concerned with shoveling more money into the NHShIT system which the Office of National Statistics have noted as having taken 14 times more money then the economies of the combined westernised nation 1898-2004, adjsted for the mean poverty level of pre-tax profits.

What went wrong...I'm not grumpy!

Now, I know that normally all the blogs are full of the woes and moans of the NHS and the fact that it is in meltdown. But today, I want to buck the trend of that if only for one post. You see, I actually LIKE what I do. So, let us think for one moment what drives us to do what we do, apply a bit of starch to the tunic and really take a positve look at what we do. It is rich for me to say that. There again though, I can. I know I have posted some negtive posts. I am aware that there are problems with the finances of the NHS. The thing is though, we all go through that. I can point to the times when I worked in management to days that were terrible.

However, let us think about the positve impact on peoples lifes that Nurses have on people. I am forever trying the think of analagies for situations. One of the ones that I came up with years ago for treatment was to take a pragmatic look at a situation. Say Patient X is admitted to hospital with an exaccerbation of COPD and is not responding well to a treatment of Bronchodilators and 4 liters of oxygen and the doctors have asked the nurse to start therapy of...lets say steroids. Right, now that fact of the patient being in the UK will mean that this seems to be a great horror. It is. Let us imagine for a moment that Patient X was in the middle of the Kalahari desert and miles away from a District General Hospital. You can appreciate there would be no GP to take a house visit, an ambulance to transport to the hospital, no HCA to show the patient to bed, not staff nurse to assess/admisiter medication and attend to, no HO/SHO (FY1-2/ST1-2) doctors to clerk and no consutant for them to be under. Imagine how long the patent would last in that example. Yes, know that the probabilty of the person having a supply of tobacco to get emphysema in the desert is also remotly small but lets try and keep the magic going!

That is the whole reason I wanted to become a nurse. I have been a patient for many years having being born with a condition which fused my fingers and toes. That is why I will willingly give up a saturday or Tuesday night to go on duty (and watch premiership and Leage 2 matches for free) and attend St John Ambulance divisional meetings on Thursdays. It is why I will walk into my bay when I am free and talk to my patient. It is why I take the time to sit next to patients and fill in their risk assessments/write communication sheets with them so that they know what I am writing, and can sometimes give me a better idea. It is why I go the extra mile for the people who I care for on duty. That is why when visiting time comes I leave the visitors to the patient but inform both patient and vistors that I will be walking around to check. It is whay I never think myself an island. It is why I like the company of others. It is why I will ask a busy nurse or HCA if they need a hand. I also think that in trying hard I should help other MDT team members. Which is why doctors will find files presented drug cardex open, why frames and sticks are left out for reach of physiotherapists and why doors are opened for porters and ambulance crews, and why lunches are given out by yours truly. I like what I do. I want to do what I do, and do it well.

That is why I hope that interviews will yield something.

That is why I wrote this blog. Sometimes all you need is a muse.

Major Incident

Ah. Sunday. A day of rest. A day of roast dinners. Or, If you were part of St John North Yorkshire and Teesside the major incident workshop day. Ah yes. I am now fully certified in knowing how to deal with a major incident and ran through triage. I even did 2 exercises in magaing it. One was a written list of casualties and what triage level I would put them at. Basically, Green is walking woulded. Yellow: Not walking but obs stable. Red is immediate attention (not walking, obs out of range) and white is...erm, how can I put this. Dead. Unlike a normal situation, anyone needing CPR at a mass-cas situation/Major emergency is left for dead. Its not nice. Trouble is, while you would waste time CRP-ing a body, the patient with femoral bleed could be saved. Hard but thats life.

I have provided a tounge-in-cheek take on the day on the diagram. I wrote the original on a scrap of paper.

My roads end

So, as of 13:30 I officially left placement. It was odd. I began the day with finding many people on duty. This was mostly HCA and two staff Nurses working the early shift. I had to wait to find out what team I was working in. It was the bay I was in on Tuesday. There were only 4 patients in the bay and two side rooms to see to. I did the baseline observations and wrote the risk assessments at the same time (there was enough time for this to be done at the same time). There was not a lot to do after making the beds and the morning did seem to drag. Two urgent ECG's were done by yours truly. The visiting SpR was happy with my lead placement and thanked for a "Nice ECG". That was pleasing!

I was searching for an IVAC infusion pump for some of the morning and went two several surrounding departments to source one. It was odd when a Nurse from the ward next door asked when I was finished my training to be able to reply "28 minutes time!". The ward senior sister wrote me a very nice witness statement which I will copy for my upcoming interviews. Next week I have 3 days in the university. Tuesday is the RCN conference, Thursday is a day of information and Friday is a closing lecture and NMC registration day.

My more pressing concern is the fact my Girlfriend last night decided she wanted to try and end our relationship claiming that things "Were not fair" on me and she was "very sorry". I am not sure what to say as this is a blow that I really did not see coming. I know emotions were running high the last few days. Now, not only do I have a job to worry about, I now have this broadside hit to deal with. To say that I have taken this bad is an understatement. I feel sick in the pit of my stomach and I have hardly eaten anything. Come to think of it, I have not eaten much at all this past week. I cannot stop thinking of her, and wonder what it is I ever did wrong to her. Any of the female readers with any ideas of what you would suggest I do please leave a comment. I figure that the best thing will be to give her some space to calm down a bit.

Speaking of the comment and the blog, I realised some time ago that after next week this blog and my ID will be redundant. I do not want to start a new blog yet, so if you have any names for the new blog which I will go on to make, and feel free to leave comment. "Staff Nurse Musings" anyone?

So, if you are a student Nurse, and you are wondering what it is like in the third year, if you are a nurse and were looking for another persons view, or you ever should be a person in the future who was considering Nursing, I hope that my small entries have been both entertaining and useful. I am now at the end of three years. I have passed the course and this time next week will be able to say that I completed my three years of University. I shall be able to put RGN after my name in a few weeks time.

In recognition of that, the video link at the top is the one that finally I choose to accurately reflect the end of the course. I have climbed the mountain of nurse training. Somehow, I have survived.
And to all the people who took the time to read and to post: My profound thanks.