27 May 2008

one of those days

Yet again, another one of those days where I would have been better off staying in bed.

21 May 2008

Merys' tip of the week

Go and see Doomsday. Seriously, it's genius and damned entertaining!

Apparently it's similar to Mad Max, but since I haven't seen that, I wouldn't know!

17 May 2008

Adoptive mothers

You would think that having one mother would be enough for me... but no. I appear to have acquired a whole ward's worth of them on the medical assessment unit.

After a normal day at uni, I had received a phone call from the staff bank saying that MAU was desperate and I knew what I was doing on there, so was there any way I could do a few hours.

We compromised at 19.00 - 02.00 - a half night shift. Suits me, and it's better than nothing for them.

The night turned out beautifully. All my 10PM observations were done by 10.20PM, the patients all tucked up in bed.

Melissa and I decided to teach each other our local languages, which turned out to be interesting swapping Yorkshire for Filipino! I now know how to say 'mate' and 'idiot/stupid'. In turn, I taught her to say she was 'off to t'pub'.

At which point the shift was pretty much over, and I discovered that I seem to have acquired a few staff nurse friends who seem to mother the poor medical student.

When I cycled home just now I was under strict instructions to phone the ward and tell one of the staff nurses that I'd arrived home safely and hadn't been beaten up! Bless her, it's like having my own mother awake at this time of the day to check on me.

10 May 2008

Just another shift

Last night I finished a full day at uni and went to do a twilight shift at work. 19.00 hours to 02.00 hours.



This morning I was up at 08.30 to get some uni stuff sorted, and then back this afternoon at work for a 1400 hours start. This time though, I didn't know which ward I was to be working on, as I agreed to be the locum HCA. This kinda means that I'm at the beck and call of the staffing managers, and if they say jump, I do kartwheels.

The powers that be sent me onto an orthopaedic ward - could be worse. Familiar faces to work with, a generally nice team.... and the opportunity to soak myself in someone else's urine after the collection bottle used to empty the catheter bag appeared to have a hole in it.

I got absolutely soaked in cold wee, all the way down my tunic top and trousers. I had to rescue my mobile phone from my pocket as it too was covered... Not nice.

This did mean that I got to wear scrubs for the rest of the shift - however I broke a cardinal rule of nursing work. I had to take a shower in one of the patient's bathrooms... Nice

07 May 2008

Mad Dogs and English (wo)men

I'm so lucky to have today off Uni!

I've been sat outside in the sunshine for most of the morning, and it appears to be having a positive effect on my mood.

I'm chirpy, cheerful and have got all of the cleaning done so far.

I just can't sit out there any longer. It's too damn hot!