Well 7am saw me in a layby in the next village on, waiting for the coach which was to take my 10 year old son on his first Scout hike somewhere in the Peak District along with about 49 other Scouts and their Leaders. Now, I am slightly worried as he is probably the youngest person going and to me had the heaviest rucksack on his back!! He moved up to Scouts when he was still only 9 as he was bored with Cubs and all his friends were moving up. However, as the saying goes - the grass is never greener on the other side and 3 months later he's telling me that he's bored at Scouts and wants to leave as they never do anything good or fun anymore - the Scout group had not long reopened but only had 1 female leader who isn't very good at discipline and the Scouts were all year 6 and 7 with no older ones to lead by example. Used my connections as a District Commissioner and got him into a Scout Troop in the next village - result - one very happy child who has been on a night hike within his first 3 weeks, today accross the Peak District and in March a night hike with camping when they reach the destination! This is fun Mum!!
However, because he is so young, I am worried - I am a Mum who never worries about her son as he is a mature young lad who is quite thoughtful about those around him, but can become excitable at times - today I feel will be one of those days! I'm hoping that he will listen to "Big Chris" - the leader who has gone with them - and follow his instructions. 7pm tonight I suppose I will find out when they return - school tomorrow will be another thing to worry about.
So, my husband has gone to work, and this leaves me with a day to myself. What shall I do? Sit in my pyjamas and watch One Tree Hill all day? No such luck.
It was my 40th birthday last week and we're all off out with the girls from work next Saturday - 21 of us in total. I need to pop along to the resturant and pay our deposit and give them our menu choice.
I have already done the sauage casserole and that is now in the slow cooker awaiting time to eat tonight. Veg just to peel and cook.
I have washed the last of the washing in the basket - that is now hanging to dry in the spare bedroom.
I do have 3 lots of uniforms to iron for work/school for tomorrow morning - that will be one of my afternoon jobs.
I have already checked over the GO! system for Guiding and made a list of all the things that need sorting out by HQ tomorrow - need to send the email.
Have made a list of all the people I need to get References for to validate them for the GO! system.
I have made a list of all the people who need CRB's - there are lots. May need to speak to the Division Commissioner to ask her to have an open morning again for the CRB's to be done - this worked well on New Year's Eve - there about 15 though that need to be done!
I am expecting at least one person to pop round this afternoon to do her CRB - Mum will bring her.
I need to check my Brownie accounts to then take them to a mum who will audit them for us.
I need to write my Brownie Pack annual report.
I need to chase the other Units in the District to find out where their accounts and annual reports are so that I can then write a District annual report and complete a chart with info re accounts on which then needs to go to HQ.
I have been asked to create a District Brownie waiting list - I have a bit of paper with all the info on, it just needs inputting on GO!
I need a new pair of work shoes - mine have falled apart at the heel.
I need to get some new socks for work.
I need to go to Boots for bits and peices - mainly make-up - I threw all of mine away in my big clearout prior to being 40!
I need to arrange new car insurance.
So, my day to myself will not be quite that I fear.
Oh well, maybe I will be able to use one of my last remaining annual leave days and spend the day in pyjamas and watch One Tree Hill all day sometime next month!
Here's hoping.
Sunday, 24 January 2010
Sunday, 20 December 2009
Too little time
I have now been blogging for 3 months and have managed the princely amount of 6 blogs in total!! I find that I have very little time and when I do have a topic to share with you all, I am unable to get to the computer as my husband is hogging it!!!
Time has been frantic in the lead up to Christmas and when I read the friend's blog who inspired me to start blogging, I wonder how she finds the time! Her life has been even more frantic recently with her husband being admitted to hospital a good 90 minutes journey each way and not in the most desirable of towns!! His stay was for 5 days and then he had to return each day for blood tests once discharged!!
I plan to continue blogging but know that I won't be here every week, today I have been lucky that I have had to borrow a laptop from guiding and so am able to access my blog without having to rely on my husband vacating the home computer for a while - he is unaware that I am doing this!!!
My life continues to be busy - a mother, daughter, sister, wife, guider in charge of a unit, a pack holiday advisor for the division, district commissioner -although this is a job share but I will write about how successful this is soon!! - I also work full time shift work and run the family home, but with a very supportive husband, so I am very lucky there!
I hope that one day, I will achieve a follower - the highest accolade I feel, but until then, I will write for my pure pleasure!
Happy Christmas one and all - I'll never get back on here before then!!
Time has been frantic in the lead up to Christmas and when I read the friend's blog who inspired me to start blogging, I wonder how she finds the time! Her life has been even more frantic recently with her husband being admitted to hospital a good 90 minutes journey each way and not in the most desirable of towns!! His stay was for 5 days and then he had to return each day for blood tests once discharged!!
I plan to continue blogging but know that I won't be here every week, today I have been lucky that I have had to borrow a laptop from guiding and so am able to access my blog without having to rely on my husband vacating the home computer for a while - he is unaware that I am doing this!!!
My life continues to be busy - a mother, daughter, sister, wife, guider in charge of a unit, a pack holiday advisor for the division, district commissioner -although this is a job share but I will write about how successful this is soon!! - I also work full time shift work and run the family home, but with a very supportive husband, so I am very lucky there!
I hope that one day, I will achieve a follower - the highest accolade I feel, but until then, I will write for my pure pleasure!
Happy Christmas one and all - I'll never get back on here before then!!
Justified!
Well, so I'm not an evil witch after all!!! The student who I have previously written about failed her dissatation for the second time which is an automatic discontinutation of training and I now feel justified in all of my concerns! It took another 3 weeks for her to stop her training but we got there!! I feel sorry for her to have come this far and to fail at the last hurdle, but when I ask the questions "would I want her looking after me when I am ill?" with the answer being "not in a month of Sundays," then this is definatley the right way to go.
Maybe she will think about trying again sometime in the future or maybe she will now realise that she just isn't cut out to be a nurse.
Can't wait to see what the next student is like!!
Maybe she will think about trying again sometime in the future or maybe she will now realise that she just isn't cut out to be a nurse.
Can't wait to see what the next student is like!!
Wednesday, 2 December 2009
Am I an evil witch??
Another of my many hats is my career in nursing. Give or take a couple of months this has now been my vocation for 20 years. I've worked all of my nursing career between 2 cities and only moved away from my training hospital group 3 years ago when all of the financial crisis hit the NHS. I've been to the lonely heights of a ward manager and beyond, but now am happy being just a worker ant.
Part of my role is to mentor students. We currently have 2 students on our ward. The first is a first year student on her first placement. She has bundles of enthusiasm and is keen to see and do everything. The second of our students is a third year student on her final placement due to qualify on the 31.01.10.
I am mentoring the third year along with another nurse who has been nursing even longer than me!!
This student has had to move her training university due to being pregnant in her third year and has moved into our region as she has family up here. She actually lives 90 minutes journey time from our hospital but unfortunately none of the other training hospitals/universities closer to home will accept students who transfer in their third year.
Our student's due date is the 3rd Feb 2010 - 3 days after her completion date. She already has another young child at home. She is currently 32/33 weeks pregnant, travelling 3 hours each day and in her first 3 weeks has managed to be sick for 5 days out of 15. She has to complete her nursing portfolio by this Friday - 2 days away - with me signing it stating that she is competent to be a nurse.
Now in the 13 days that she has managed to make it into work, I am quite clear that this is just not going to happen.
After a long discussion with her other mentor last week, I had the delightful task of sitting her down and explaining that I felt she would be better off pausing her training now, resting until the baby is born and then returning to complete her training once she was happy that the baby was OK to be left.
She accepted this and then spent the following day at the university trying to sort this out. I also contacted the university link tutor to explain to him why we felt this way and also sent him an email.
I arrive at work on Monday to find that everything has done a 180 degree turn and that she is going to continue and that I am being forced to say that she will be fine so long as she can get a two week extension on her portfolio!!!!
I then had to write an extensive action plan for her and gave her objectives to be achieved in stages leading up until the 18th December - the new deadline. It was agreed that if she could achieve all of this, then she would pass her placement.
I sat with her, explained the objectives, she agreed them and signed them, and a copy given to the ward manager who had already expressed some concern that she was going to continue.
The plan was to work towards her first objective and to have achieved it by this coming Monday. She was to think about how she would achieve her goals each day on her long commute to work and then we would sit and reflect on how things had gone at the end of each shift. Yesterday went slowly and she made a few basic errors but altogether not too bad. Today however was a different kettle of fish.
We were extremely busy and had too many patients for our beds. This meant that we had to work fast to get them through and to get the next lot in. The first patient she went to admit she took an hour to do! This should have taken no longer than 15 minutes for a student - if it had been one of the qualified nurses - 5 - 10 minutes at the most.
The next patient she admitted was a diabetic patient, basic obs include recording a baseline blood sugar - none done, last minute panic to test it prior to going into theatre. Next patient she admitted was on warfarin - a blood thinner and requires a blood test to check how thin the blood is so that the surgeon knows what he is dealing with. Recorded that the patient was on warfarin, but failed to alert any of the nursing staff that the patient would need this test doing - it can take up to an hour to get the result back!!! Luckily for us the consultant was in a fairly good mood and even offered to take the blood himself, but this still delayed the theatre list by 35 minutes, which in turn then delayed the patient going home which in turn then delayed the afternoon patients being able to be admitted.
When I managed to find time to speak to her at the end of my shift - making me late home and late picking up my son - I had to point out her 3 basic problems from today's shift. I also went through the other objectives and explained to her that she only had 3 more shifts left to achieve this first objective and that she was a long way off doing so. I also explained to her that even though she may achieve this objective, she would still be expected to maintain it as well as work towards her other objectives.
I emphasised to her that the objectives would be difficult to achieve in the time span we had and that could she now see why I was keen for her to pause her training??
I also said to her before I left that tomorrow was another day - likely to be as busy as today - and that she would need to have a clear action plan on how she would achieve her objective tomorrow. I'm hoping that she will improve by at least 300%!!
On my journey home, all I could think about was am I being an evil witch and making things difficult for her to continue her training, or am I trying to be a good mentor and encourage her to take advantage of the opportunity to rest before baby comes along?
I do know that if faced with this student at interview, I wouldn't employ her!!!
Part of my role is to mentor students. We currently have 2 students on our ward. The first is a first year student on her first placement. She has bundles of enthusiasm and is keen to see and do everything. The second of our students is a third year student on her final placement due to qualify on the 31.01.10.
I am mentoring the third year along with another nurse who has been nursing even longer than me!!
This student has had to move her training university due to being pregnant in her third year and has moved into our region as she has family up here. She actually lives 90 minutes journey time from our hospital but unfortunately none of the other training hospitals/universities closer to home will accept students who transfer in their third year.
Our student's due date is the 3rd Feb 2010 - 3 days after her completion date. She already has another young child at home. She is currently 32/33 weeks pregnant, travelling 3 hours each day and in her first 3 weeks has managed to be sick for 5 days out of 15. She has to complete her nursing portfolio by this Friday - 2 days away - with me signing it stating that she is competent to be a nurse.
Now in the 13 days that she has managed to make it into work, I am quite clear that this is just not going to happen.
After a long discussion with her other mentor last week, I had the delightful task of sitting her down and explaining that I felt she would be better off pausing her training now, resting until the baby is born and then returning to complete her training once she was happy that the baby was OK to be left.
She accepted this and then spent the following day at the university trying to sort this out. I also contacted the university link tutor to explain to him why we felt this way and also sent him an email.
I arrive at work on Monday to find that everything has done a 180 degree turn and that she is going to continue and that I am being forced to say that she will be fine so long as she can get a two week extension on her portfolio!!!!
I then had to write an extensive action plan for her and gave her objectives to be achieved in stages leading up until the 18th December - the new deadline. It was agreed that if she could achieve all of this, then she would pass her placement.
I sat with her, explained the objectives, she agreed them and signed them, and a copy given to the ward manager who had already expressed some concern that she was going to continue.
The plan was to work towards her first objective and to have achieved it by this coming Monday. She was to think about how she would achieve her goals each day on her long commute to work and then we would sit and reflect on how things had gone at the end of each shift. Yesterday went slowly and she made a few basic errors but altogether not too bad. Today however was a different kettle of fish.
We were extremely busy and had too many patients for our beds. This meant that we had to work fast to get them through and to get the next lot in. The first patient she went to admit she took an hour to do! This should have taken no longer than 15 minutes for a student - if it had been one of the qualified nurses - 5 - 10 minutes at the most.
The next patient she admitted was a diabetic patient, basic obs include recording a baseline blood sugar - none done, last minute panic to test it prior to going into theatre. Next patient she admitted was on warfarin - a blood thinner and requires a blood test to check how thin the blood is so that the surgeon knows what he is dealing with. Recorded that the patient was on warfarin, but failed to alert any of the nursing staff that the patient would need this test doing - it can take up to an hour to get the result back!!! Luckily for us the consultant was in a fairly good mood and even offered to take the blood himself, but this still delayed the theatre list by 35 minutes, which in turn then delayed the patient going home which in turn then delayed the afternoon patients being able to be admitted.
When I managed to find time to speak to her at the end of my shift - making me late home and late picking up my son - I had to point out her 3 basic problems from today's shift. I also went through the other objectives and explained to her that she only had 3 more shifts left to achieve this first objective and that she was a long way off doing so. I also explained to her that even though she may achieve this objective, she would still be expected to maintain it as well as work towards her other objectives.
I emphasised to her that the objectives would be difficult to achieve in the time span we had and that could she now see why I was keen for her to pause her training??
I also said to her before I left that tomorrow was another day - likely to be as busy as today - and that she would need to have a clear action plan on how she would achieve her objective tomorrow. I'm hoping that she will improve by at least 300%!!
On my journey home, all I could think about was am I being an evil witch and making things difficult for her to continue her training, or am I trying to be a good mentor and encourage her to take advantage of the opportunity to rest before baby comes along?
I do know that if faced with this student at interview, I wouldn't employ her!!!
Thursday, 15 October 2009
Missing Mum and Dad??
Of course one of my hats is as a parent. We were only ever able to have one son - who is now 10 - even though we have been trying for abut 8 years for another without success.
Up our way it's half term week and being very fortunate, my parents are always happy to have our son with them for the holiday - they live just over 200 miles away so don't get to see him as often as they would like - win win I see it as!!
We usually meet halfway between our homes and last Saturday after the early morning swimming lesson off we went. Two and half hours later we've met up, transferred what seems like half of our house into nanny and grandad's car and said our goodbyes - see you in a week, but we'll ring every night!
Have dutifully rung each night, but due to work I missed him on Tuesday night - I didn't get home until after 9pm. Spoke to my mum who said he'd been fine. Said I'd ring again on Wednesday - ring before 6.30 as we're going out for a meal with aunts, uncles, cousins etc. OK I reply.
Make the call as instructed at 6.20 - no reply. They had already gone out. Now I was off out with a friend and didn't expect to be home before 10pm, and my mum not being too good with technology, never answers her mobile phone!!!
So I ring this morning - he answers the phone!! Hello monkey I say, I've not spoken to you for a couple of days, are you OK?
Answer - haven't you? didn't realise! I'm OK.
Now, I could take this a couple of ways really - should I be deeply crushed that my son is not bothered that I haven't spoken to him for over 48 hours or, should I be happy that he is enjoying himself so much that he hasn't realised that this amount of time has passed and that he hasn't spoken to mum? Of course I go for the second option. I know that he is safe - although my mum is usually a bit slow telling me that he has had a trip to A & E for an allergic reaction to things!! - I know that he is enjoying himself and that he is a happy and confident young man. Part of me wishes though that occasionally he would ring me and tell me that he's missing me and can't wait to come back home!!
Am counting the hours until Saturday when I'll be trundling off down the M5 to meet him half way and bring him home!!
Up our way it's half term week and being very fortunate, my parents are always happy to have our son with them for the holiday - they live just over 200 miles away so don't get to see him as often as they would like - win win I see it as!!
We usually meet halfway between our homes and last Saturday after the early morning swimming lesson off we went. Two and half hours later we've met up, transferred what seems like half of our house into nanny and grandad's car and said our goodbyes - see you in a week, but we'll ring every night!
Have dutifully rung each night, but due to work I missed him on Tuesday night - I didn't get home until after 9pm. Spoke to my mum who said he'd been fine. Said I'd ring again on Wednesday - ring before 6.30 as we're going out for a meal with aunts, uncles, cousins etc. OK I reply.
Make the call as instructed at 6.20 - no reply. They had already gone out. Now I was off out with a friend and didn't expect to be home before 10pm, and my mum not being too good with technology, never answers her mobile phone!!!
So I ring this morning - he answers the phone!! Hello monkey I say, I've not spoken to you for a couple of days, are you OK?
Answer - haven't you? didn't realise! I'm OK.
Now, I could take this a couple of ways really - should I be deeply crushed that my son is not bothered that I haven't spoken to him for over 48 hours or, should I be happy that he is enjoying himself so much that he hasn't realised that this amount of time has passed and that he hasn't spoken to mum? Of course I go for the second option. I know that he is safe - although my mum is usually a bit slow telling me that he has had a trip to A & E for an allergic reaction to things!! - I know that he is enjoying himself and that he is a happy and confident young man. Part of me wishes though that occasionally he would ring me and tell me that he's missing me and can't wait to come back home!!
Am counting the hours until Saturday when I'll be trundling off down the M5 to meet him half way and bring him home!!
Monday, 12 October 2009
Rota
Another of my hats is as a deputy manager of a ward in the NHS. I am full time but fairly new to this job - although I was a ward manager in my time - and my colleague is part time and has been in this position for many many years.
When our unit opened, she went for the ward managers job but was beaten by someone below her from the ward - this went down like a lead balloon!!! That was almost 3 years ago now, but she still likes to try and get one up on the manger every now and then.
Since I came into post about 4 months ago now, she has tried to put me down at every opportunity, which I don't mind as most of the time she has fallen flat on her face! The most recent part though is about off duty!!!!
I have always said that I would never do off duty again because of the grief it causes. However, our ward manager has repeatedly asked the other deputy to take this on board, but she has failed to do it. So I have offered just to help out as the ward manager is getting more and more rubbish thrown at her and asked to go to this meeting and that meeting at a drop of a hat. I can't remember the last time she was able to work on the ward doing what she calls her proper job - caring for patients!
Of course the other deputy sister has gone up the wall about it as I haven't been trained to use the e-rostering recently introduced to the Trust - she has but has never tried to use it. So although the offer was there, it has never been taken up. That was until last week when I came into work on the Friday to an email and a really big sorry written in the ward diary, saying that she had been so tired that she had been unable to complete the off duty and could I do it for her. Not a problem I said.
Finally manged to get some time in the afternoon and 30 minutes later - a week of off duty had been produced! Now the advantage of doing the off duty is that you can usually give yourself the shifts you want and make sure that you are not working with the people you despise - the other deputy sister!! I am very honest, I have no respect for her and really find it difficult to tolerate her when at work - but being as professional of over 20 years, I hide it very well!
I have emailed this to the ward manager and hope that she will publish it soon as it is for next week!
I can see this job falling my way for the time being and of course to keep madam happy, I will be wasting - sorry spending - a day learning how to use the e-rostering - oh joy!! But the up side? I won't be working with her as much as I have been in the past!
When our unit opened, she went for the ward managers job but was beaten by someone below her from the ward - this went down like a lead balloon!!! That was almost 3 years ago now, but she still likes to try and get one up on the manger every now and then.
Since I came into post about 4 months ago now, she has tried to put me down at every opportunity, which I don't mind as most of the time she has fallen flat on her face! The most recent part though is about off duty!!!!
I have always said that I would never do off duty again because of the grief it causes. However, our ward manager has repeatedly asked the other deputy to take this on board, but she has failed to do it. So I have offered just to help out as the ward manager is getting more and more rubbish thrown at her and asked to go to this meeting and that meeting at a drop of a hat. I can't remember the last time she was able to work on the ward doing what she calls her proper job - caring for patients!
Of course the other deputy sister has gone up the wall about it as I haven't been trained to use the e-rostering recently introduced to the Trust - she has but has never tried to use it. So although the offer was there, it has never been taken up. That was until last week when I came into work on the Friday to an email and a really big sorry written in the ward diary, saying that she had been so tired that she had been unable to complete the off duty and could I do it for her. Not a problem I said.
Finally manged to get some time in the afternoon and 30 minutes later - a week of off duty had been produced! Now the advantage of doing the off duty is that you can usually give yourself the shifts you want and make sure that you are not working with the people you despise - the other deputy sister!! I am very honest, I have no respect for her and really find it difficult to tolerate her when at work - but being as professional of over 20 years, I hide it very well!
I have emailed this to the ward manager and hope that she will publish it soon as it is for next week!
I can see this job falling my way for the time being and of course to keep madam happy, I will be wasting - sorry spending - a day learning how to use the e-rostering - oh joy!! But the up side? I won't be working with her as much as I have been in the past!
Saturday, 26 September 2009
Why blog?
I have often admired a couple of friends who find time in their lives to write a blog a few times a week and thought to myself - should I be doing this?
I've searched about it on the web, but have never taken the plunge!
However, a few days ago, a friend on Facebook - yes I know! - gave a link to her second attempt at starting to write a blog. Having followed the link, and seen the inane rubbish she chose to impart to all and sundry, I felt that even I could do better than that!!
I know that I will never post anything as deep and thoughtful as my other friends and a part of me thinks that this may turn into a Victor Meldrew moaning place, however, maybe one day I will write something someone else may agree with or have had the same feelings about and then they'll know that it's just not them!
Welcome to my world!!
I've searched about it on the web, but have never taken the plunge!
However, a few days ago, a friend on Facebook - yes I know! - gave a link to her second attempt at starting to write a blog. Having followed the link, and seen the inane rubbish she chose to impart to all and sundry, I felt that even I could do better than that!!
I know that I will never post anything as deep and thoughtful as my other friends and a part of me thinks that this may turn into a Victor Meldrew moaning place, however, maybe one day I will write something someone else may agree with or have had the same feelings about and then they'll know that it's just not them!
Welcome to my world!!
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