Yesterday Was Far Better

Never had a day like it... Being told that I'll pass if I keep doing my job that way I am! SCORE!

I love my placement. Placement is now past the halfway point and it flies past. Course working only 3 days out of 7 does make it feel like that. I also feel rather lazy. The eagle eyed might have noticed that I've not done a whole lot of swimming recently. Yea I need to get out more on that front. It might have something to do with the minor factor that I got a monthly pass so the motivation has gone out of it. You know what I mean. All those gym memberships that run for a year but only see a single month of visits.

Anyway I have a range of news stories that have filtered past the news feeds in recent days.

The paramedic who was attacked by yobs throwing fireworks while the woman, who was suffering a heart attack, lay dying. What is the obsession with attacking the emergency services? I really don't get it.

There's an inquest currently happening into the deaths of 10 elderly patients at a single hospital. What got me was the recollection of one patient's son who was told that his mother was there to die. that not the kindest way of breaking something. Even worse he believed that she was there to rehab after a stroke. So why is a woman in rehab dying? Who really knows. However all 10 patients were under the care of the same doctor; who is now under suspicion for over prescribing sedation.

Lastly there was a study done on wither religion makes a difference on patients wanting resuscitation at the end of life. Can't really comment on this personally because I've not really seen it happen first hand. I know for a fact that families have a huge part to play in the resus status of patients. Maybe they should and maybe they shouldn't. Who really knows? A lot of the fight comes from the person themselves and their inner strength. So does that imply that those who are not as religious have less inner strength? Is this evidence to back up some of the claims that religious speakers make?

And in the culture section of today's news announcement I need to get my ass over to Edinburgh. A Turner exhibition starts next week! A selection of his Italian works and his paint box and pallet. Hows cool is that?

Right I'm off to enjoy what may be the best weather Scotland will see all year!

WTF?

OK well we have a 3 year old with a smoking habit and his mother dragged up in front of court. The kid was filmed by his mother's friend because she was worried about him. Apparently the film clip shows him lighting a butt with a lighter and inhaling. Now come on if that was a kid showing off by coping then her would have been coughing, or better still wouldn't have gotten a lighter to work. I know I was 5 when my dad taught me about matches and lighters. He's a smoker and if lighters and matches were going to litter the house then I better be able to do it without setting fire to the place.
That kid had skill that no other 3 year old would (or should) have. The kid had done it before. Ergo the kid had a habit.

Then we have a nurse who was struck off the register for killing her husband with an axe. Actually the WTF stems from the fact that she is now wanting to be put back on the register. I understand the background of domestic abuse and that he had done something like fathering a child with his niece or her niece or something. But really would you want a nurse who has a past conviction like that? We are never supposed to judge our patients but I know for a fact that they would judge us and her name is all over the BBC website's stories. I assume that the NMC will stand by their decision. It's all up to the high courts to make a decision. The NMC's on shaky enough ground with the public and it members without dragging this through the press too.

Start of Semester Bureaucracy

Turns out we're off for another 2 weeks. Of course we didn't know this till after we all turned up at 9am. The degree students have 2 units in 2 weeks while we swan about like the lord of the manor.

We're senior students now. We have to act like it. I almost wish there was a way to reach the other gay and lesbian students on the course since we have no LGBT group here. Life would have been easier for me if there had been something like that. On a side note I was tempted to write into the Nursing Standard this week. If I do I'll let you in on it.

I don't get this.... we have a new system and we have to re register again (actually it's a bit of a regular occurrence). But because I didn't get a piece on paper in on time I can't actually do it yet. Ah beggery I'm gonna just put my feet up for a bit.

I'm waiting on blood test results from my GP. She took FBC, U+Es, LFT, ESR, Glucose, Nuclear and Rheumatoid Factors. It's actually a good thing I went on holiday when I did the wait is sending me nuts. She said 2 weeks and I'll get them on Thursday. Take 3 guesses as to what she's looking for.

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...

Social Evils

There was a comment in this week's Nursing Standard about the study into new social evils. Back in 1904 Joseph Rowntree (yep the sweet maker) found poverty, war, slavery, intemperance, the opium trade, impurity and gambling to be the social evils.
Hate to say it but they all still exist... Except the opium trade now fuels war, girls and young women are being smuggled into this country and others for sex, binge drinking is the major feature in young people's lives (and at a younger age too) and as for impurity and gambling I would love to see what he would say about most of the internet.
Today's social evils aren't all that different;
A decline of community, Individualism, Consumerism and greed, A decline of values, The decline of the family, Young people as victims or perpetrators, Drugs and alcohol, Poverty and inequality, Immigration and responses to immigration, Crime and violence. (All found here.)
Anyway apparently the state of the country hinges on the break down of 'normal' families and religion. What isn't clear about religion is whether lack of religion is the cause or the strength of some people. Clearly many wars have a base in religion. However those who believe think that atheists and agnostics are the root cause because they have no moral compass provided by religions.
Ask some and you will find that anyone that isn't white, Christian and takes no money from the state to feed them should be locked up.
I guess that makes me a social evil! Cool.... Homosexuality has already been put on a par with terrorism.
So I can cause earthquakes and now I'm a terrorist causing the break down of the country's morals too. No wonder people are scared to come out and I hide behind a screen name. Still sometimes it's funny offending people.

WardBunny News Network

It's been awhile, mostly because the night shift really did mess with my brain. So this is a round up of some bizarre news stories that have been coming through my feed reader this week.
First up the some what badly understood study on what the staff think of the NHS. The BBC have billed it 'Care not top priority - NHS staff'.
This does not mean that the nurses, doctors and everyone else doesn't care about you as a patient but instead that the care of patients does not seem to be the top priority for the upper echelons of Trust management. Well it's not money is and to be honest probably always has been.
Then that have been more studies into the drop out rates of student nurses. The best quote of that article has to be 'morale among student nurses was at rock bottom'. Well the course ain't exactly a walk through marshmallow land with a unicorn. More like wading through a waste treatment plant in the dark, backwards.
In more depressing news (if it can get worse than that) Tekkamaki died last night. Kappamaki is still fit and healthy, and has a new tank mate. 'New Guy' is still nameless but has taken to sniffing poor Kappamaki's behind.
And finally - Lecturer Writes Cook Book. Yea anatomy cook book, lets just hope he doesn't teach human anatomy or else the next headline will be 'Lecturer Arrested For Promoting Mass Cannibalism, Students Protest'.

If Only...

WardBunny's State of the Country Post

It has been a while since I wrote a post that come out as a rant but I feel the need to express how much seems to be wrong with this country. To start with there's the Dispatches documentary on the choice pensioners have to make. To they heat their homes or eat?
Why do we let this go on? Why should people who have worked their whole lives to pay their taxes and national insurance be forced to make a choice like that because the state pension is not enough to pay for their care, food and the hiked up heating bills?
This country has more problems than Swiss cheese has holes. Where should I start....
Think about it, hard working lower middle class (and that is a legitimate class these days) are being taxed every way they turn while the NHS continues to go down the pan, children are almost literally getting away with murder, knife crime is on the rise, and the education system is suffering from delinquent children and massive shortages.
So what are the politicians doing with our taxes? Paying their own families to work for them (without doing any actual work).
It's all a bit of a shambles. I could run this place better (and no I've not been drinking).
I believe this is now a nanny state. We have a ban on smoking in public places, people sitting on the dole for their entire lives and we are a huge soft touch when it comes to immigration.
We need to toughen this place up. You want to ruin your life with smoking or poor diet, then carry on just don't take anyone else down with you. We need an acceptable cap on taxes for those who can't afford it and a cap on the amount of pay some get. Politicians get paid far too much in my book. We need to reroute these taxes back into the police, the NHS, the emergency services and the education system. We need slap (not literally) some sense back into those in power.
Prevention is good but it sure as heck not working. We need to plough money into fixing the fact that we are the best at teenage pregnancy, stroke, heart disease and heart attacks. Oh yea and if we could stop going on about England winning the world cup in 1966, please? We don't need to be reminded that the last time we were any good as a country at a sport of any kind was 40-odd years ago. You don't hear the Scottish curlers going on and on about their gold medals now do you?