Morning (Not Necessarily Good)

Well I'm awake stupidly early. Without drinking anything it seems something curled-up and died in my mouth over night, yuck.
It's stupidly warm too, 14 degrees C and it's what my mother would refer to as 'close'. I think that might mean the humidity is up... yep my hair's gone fuzzy, must be damp out there.
Have I mentioned I hate the first day of placement? It always messes with my sleep even if I'm not getting up at 5:30 to start an early shift. It's just a shame I'm starting at 9, cos I'm bang on time for a start in the ITU.

Hmm

New placement... Outpatients. I've heard some really mixed reviews of this kind of placement area. The main problem being that although I'm expected to be in on consultations but in reality I'm at the bottom of the pecking order. Somewhere way after the medical students.
I don't mind, I'd just rather be on a ward being somewhat useful.

101st Post

Hey who would have thought I would have gotten this far?
I feel I should offer something.
Counselling probably. Although with new research showing that apparently we should no longer talk about our traumas because we'll deal with it better maybe I should just offer you the option of reading one of the many better blogs listed down the side (helpfully arranged by department!). On a side note read the comments at the end of this Times article. Way I see it if you want to talk about it then carry on, I tend to bottle things. When I do eventually vent I get told I'm an angry person. Oh wait you already knew that.
I did my bit for someone by giving a pint of blood (between one thing and another I can only give occasionally). Hope none of you have my blood type!
There have been rumblings in the blogosphere which may drive nurse bloggers further underground. Mousie might have been outed. A cruel and unnecessary kind of punishment having been somewhat outed myself in a different way. What followed was an outpouring of support. Well deserved I think for she is one of the best around but at the end of the day blogging isn't going to pay the bills. Good luck, Mousie!
You'll have to wait till tomorrow for what I really wanted to most tonight but I have these classes (I think they might be important) and sleep (well it wouldn't be the first time I've given that up in exchange for watching TV or some less than important task).
Night folks.

Odd News

Blair has promised to devote the rest of his life to uniting the World's religions and getting world peace.

Sorry mate but you're on to plums there. Even if all the Miss World's got together they couldn't cause world peace to spontaneously break out. Saint Teresa had more of a chance.

Saint Blair?! The words 'pass' and 'buckets' comes to mind...

Goodbye, Beryl Cook

Goodbye to one of my favourite artists, Beryl Cook.
I loved the way she looked at society and the way she saw a different side to people.
She will be remembered for her art and how it was a contemporary look at community.

Goodbye, Beryl, from a long time fan.

(Photo Credit!)

Shepherd's Pie

I've been messing around with my shepherd's pie recipe. Well I say recipe I was making it up to begin with.

• Using sweet potato instead of Maris Piper potatoes. Actually I think I mix of the two works well, cos the sweet potato can be quite fibrous and doesn't spread so well
• I've used beef, lamb and turkey mince. Beef reminds me of chewing little bits of plastic and I won't tell you what I think boiled mince smells like. Lamb was nice but the turkey was the best yet, mmm soft and tender.
• Cornflour to thicken the gravy. Old trick yes but I can't stand it being too runny, besides it holds up better when you're trying to serve it.
• Last night I ran out of my usual carrots so I used chestnut mushrooms. I prefer that to carrots.
• Caramelise the onions before browning the mince, then you can taste them in the gravy.

You can guess what I've been eating over the last few weeks. Granted I've fed my flatmates a few times too.
Next week: Cookies!

Negligence

Who would leave a patient having a fit for over 2 and a half hours? Apparently these 2 nurses.
Neglected until she died. It's not just criminal negligence but a complete disregard of all the rules, regulations and ethical concepts a nurse would be trained to follow.
The sick thing in all of this? The UK justice system only gave them a 4 and 6 month suspended sentence. Is that all a human life is worth? At least they'll never nurse again.
Dereliction of duty - can't you still be shot for that in the army?

Because You Needed to Know

1,977,360How Many Germs Live On Your Keyboard?

OnePlusYou Quizzes and Widgets

Patients = Odd?

The writing on the box says do not insert into ear canal. Heck even I don't follow that but how do you lose the fluffy cotton end of a q-tip in your ear canal in the first place?

Then why would you go and lose ANOTHER chunk of cotton wool into the other ear? What possessed you to keep on going? You can't hear anything now and you've had to take a day off to get your ears syringed!

(Photo Credit!)

All Degree Profession?

I've been questioning the viability of destroying the diploma option and turning nursing in the UK into an all degree profession.
EH? The drop-out rates are sky high already. We would be depriving patients of good nurses that could honestly NOT survive the course as it stands.
I say this because I'll be one of those not graduating with a degree. I don't think it changes the levels of patient care. I can still be a competent nurse working with the latest research without having to write 5,000 words on something I cannot comprehend.
I dinna ken the reasoning behind this. They say they want a profession and that means university degrees.
Does not compute... According to the Guardian 83% of nursing students take the diploma option. So how would this do what the RCN says and increase the intake? Making it a degree is not going to somehow encourage students from other subjects to choose nursing instead, if that's what they're thinking. To squeeze out the weaker academically is sometimes to squeeze out those who perform best with the patients.
Knowing the difference between qualitative and quantitative isn't gonna help me when a patient looks at me and asks when they are going to die.