To expect wet behind the ears Doctors today

I think until she retires Ashmore needs to keep her identity close to her chest, otherwise it'll be difficult for her to come on he to have a much needed moan. Having just escaped from the NHS she has my total sympathy .

Actually,regardless of my moaning, I LOVE my 'JOB' and am currently on a ward that is probably the BEST I have ever in all my years worked on. My senior Sister is supportive in view of my past 18/12 torment at the hands of my trusts arrogant and inept employees and granddaughters treatment as a whole, I hope I can somehow continue to my retirement birthday. I will be sad to leave but after what I have been through I will always look back with anger.

I could add the treatment of my mother was far from average on the ward I used to be the senior sister on 10 years ago.The junior doctors looking after her were inept and pain control was 'dictated' by protocols rather than individualised. The HO dictating she was on 'plenty' while ignoring her pre accident level of analgesics. Physio's so interested in her hip they ignored her collapsing knee and ankle problems and who with the doctors and nurses hell bent on following the fractured neck of femur Integrated pathway. How different it was on my neighbouring ward, who had a different philosophy of care.

I don't know a nurse from my generation who is not looking at the retirement clock for one reason or another. The day I start to HATE my JOB, will be the day find something else to do. The doctors come and go. while I have the nursing staff as a constant I can be grateful for what time I have left with my patients, the people I go to work for. the pay cheque helps, but if I wanted a well paid job mon to fri with few responsibilities I would have jumped ship years ago.

The NHS is not perfect and never really has been. The changes happened around 1988 when Nursing schools were being replaced by the universities. I have a lot of respect for my degree qualified staff nurses, they manage wards very well, yet are rarely seen at the bedside. Something I continue to manage when I am in charge. on weekends I take my turn doing what I see as proper nursing. Back to basics and it is this I miss.
The wards are being poached for staff to take on mini doctor roles. Bleeding wards of experienced nurses. we have over 30 specialist and consultant nurse posts.

While I appreciate all the hard work and dedication to studies the Doctors and new nurses put in, putting theory into practice is not what it used to be and Newly qualified staff come out often with a good knowledge but little sense to be able to put it into practice. in effect many , by no means all newly fledged Doctors and Nurses, not happy to crawl they want to run from the get go. Doctors and Nurses who 'trained in the dark ages' as it was put to me less than a week ago, we came out of training schools toddling nearly ready to walk. we were not frightened of a helping hand, we trusted them to help us and be there if we fell. That is where a lot of the problems lie.

The Doctors who are not frightened of us will ask for help, those with a God complex will not. a lot of the ward work is left to senior nurses as the new doctors foundation training structure seems devoid of the structure of their early years. Ward rounds in the old sense a thing of the past. Often having to be self reliant. You can bet your bottom dollar, if a very junior Doctor makes a mistake because the senior nurse didn't challenge him, and with Demigods this is so difficult, because they throw their weight around, the nurse would be held partly responsible. While the GMC may sanction the Doctor, the NMC would crucify the nurse. I too have a steely stare and a whip lash tongue. I hate to resort to telling tales, but it sometimes is the only way. I have also been there for them when they have made a mistake and live with self doubt, often not warranted.

I am off now until Monday, time for them to settle in......If I had to choose my training hospital, the 3 hospitals I have worked in between that one and my current one for best standards I couldn't pick. All have their good points and all their bad. I have patients who do not trust our sister hospital as people will not trust ours but that happens elsewhere too. . There are very few people in the NHS who don't care about their patients or their job because they couldn't stay.
The current philosophy of Health care has to be where you look for fault. the purse holders and factory minded managers who only see a 'bottom line'. I don't know anyone who works at the 'coal face' who worries about a 'bottom line'. Health provision is not a bottomless pit however a few less pennies spent on decorating management offices and travelling allowances for board members....etc etc.

i made the mistake of judging globally all wet behind the ears doctors rather than the few individuals it was targeted at. I am sure there are examples everywhere....

off to work on our new Nil by Mouth draft policy

After my daughter was in hospital with acute myeloid leukaemia in August, I vowed I'd never go to hospital in Feb & Aug (I didn't realise it's April as well). She had a brilliant Junior & then he was replaced by a new one who always looked terrified & went down his checklist in a manner that felt like interrogation. It really upset her & when things went wrong he diagnosed a pulmonary embolism, which was very unlikely & wasn't. He was incapable of using a cardiac monitor & she ended up really distressed. I do wonder how much training they are given in basics like taking blood & using equipment. I do feel for them having to get to know their way round hospital, procedures etc. never mind deal with life & death decisions. August of course is when many Consultants are on holiday as my daughter's were. She died a week or so later & we often wonder if the change-over, though not a direct cause, had an impact as it increased her stress incredibly. I've only recently had experience of hospitals as a patient myself & every time found myself there in August. I try to be compassionate with the new ones & tried to encourage them e.g. when struggling to take one's blood - in a corridor too. I also found myself being visited by a whole lot of them when I told one I didn't mind them looking into my eye to see a dormant toxoplasmosis. A new Doc had seen me in A&E & I made sure I checked that all the appointments he said he'd made for me had gone through the system & I also got another opinion.
I get frustrated that the same problems seem to come up over & over again without the system being examined (do put me right if you know otherwise) so I can understand why Nurses like Ashmore get drained by it all.