Tag: Nursing
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A Shift On Women’s Surgical Ward
When bodies falter, nurses have a ringside seat, give care to all, to strangers. Who will the strangers be? Someone’s mum, auntie, brother, cousin, sister, uncle, granny, grandpa. They never know. This shift begins with bedside handover. First woman, large ovarian cancer removed the day before. Eye contact, smile, ID check, note her skin colour,…
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The Night Shift
1988. Glasgow Royal Infirmary, young lad, drunk, “get tae fk, get aff me ya bastards!” face slashed (bottle/knife?) skin flapping, pinned down by police and porters, blood spraying up the curtains, on the docs white coat. “Keep still!!” My job, apply pressure (try not to get stitched to mental boy in the process) fingers scarily…
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Chapter 12. Womens Theatre
We take modern surgery for granted. Anaesthetists render us unconscious, surgeons make deft incisions, cauterise, snip, scrape, biopsy, repair. We wake without remembering a thing. A miracle of modern medicine. Not a miracle of course but the result of many highly qualified individuals coming together, an array of pharmaceuticals, specialized equipment and instruments. I often…
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We Are Worth It
I wrote this blog in Feb 2022 in the midst of the pandemic while working many shifts in my hospitals COVID ward. Around that time my NSW colleagues had taken strike action due to serious concerns about the quality of care they were able to give. Unacceptable nurse:patient ratios and pay inequity were the major…
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Chapter 14. Team work , respect and kindness
I’m usually calm and professional at work (on the outside anyway) only losing my composure once, with a bully type colleague. The older you get, it’s easier to take these people on, call out the behaviour, never comfortable but important to find your voice when someone is taking the piss. Empathic , tolerant , stoic…
The Midwife/Nurse Hobbyfarmer 