Deep pockets

'What have I got in my pocket?'

                                                                                                               Bilbo Baggins  

While on shift the other day a number of things happened that ended up with the above statement being said by myself...

1. While the SN I was working with was with a patient they knocked out their venflon and started to bleed all over the bed.  I was with the patient in the next bed space when this happened and the SN asked me to run and grab some swabs for them to help stop the bleeding... My hand went into my pocket and pulled out a pack of sterile gauze swabs and tape and passed them to the SN.

2. The SN was putting up a bag of IV fluids and had forgotten to bring a flush with them and asked me if I could go and grab one for them... My hand went into my pocket and I pulled out a flush.

3. I was providing pressure relief for a patient with another CSW and they noticed that the patient had a small op-site dressing on their back that needed changing and said they would go and grab one from the treatment room... I got them to put their hand in my pocket and they pulled out a small op-site dressing.

4. I was helping a foundation yr1 Doctor who was cannulating a patient with dementia by talking to them to keep them calm when the Doctor dropped the bung from the cannula... I put my hand in my pocket and pulled out a bung.

5. I was chatting to one of the CSW's who were filling in a patients 'MUST' when they said that they were just going to get the BMI chart to work out what the patient BMI score was... I put my hand in my pocket and pulled out a BMI calculator disk.

6. The SN was filling in a patients 'Falls risk' care plan and was going through their drugs chart and was filling in the section for 'is the patient on 4 or more medications'. They ticked the box for 'yes'  when I chirped up and pointed out that it was talking about medication from the falls risk list. They looked at me, 'What list?'... I put my hand in my pocket and pulled out a folded up A4 piece of paper with a list of medications and handed it over.

This then resulted in the following conversation:

'Your pockets are like Mary Poppins handbag. What do you have in your pockets?'

'What have you got in your pockets!?!'

'My handover, my phone and my lip gloss.'

Ok... Everything you need to survive the day.'

I giggled and asked if I could borrow their lip gloss before emptying out my pockets...

'What have I got in my pockets? I have... a packet of sterile gauze swabs, a small op-site dressing, 2 x saline flush, 2 x IV bungs, tape, clinical skills pocket guide, drugs pocket guide, BMI calculator disk, RCN blood results, MUST height/BMI tape measure, falls risk drug list, antibiotics list, colorectal operations guide and my note book with wound tape measure, venepuncture guide, constructive writing guide and orthopaedic operations notes/pictures I've done.'

'Wow... that's a lot of things... you're like a REAL nurse! If we run out of things I will come to you 1st as its all in your pockets. hahaha.'

I like to think that most nurses carry the same amount of crap in their pockets as me.  Ive been in enough situations at work to know that you should hope for the best but be prepared for the worst.

Anyway it's time to go get dinner on the go so I will love you... and leave you :)

              

                                

Hard done to...

'You rise,
you fall,
you're down then you rise again.
What don't kill you'll make you more strong'

Metallica, 2008

The time was 20.45 and I was walking off  the ward from a shift that should have finished at 20.00.  Now I know that nurses getting off shift late is nothing new - when I was a CSW I was one of two members of staff who would stay late to make sure that someone was on hand for the patients while handover was taking place, but it was the reason behind me getting off late that was bugging me... *Insert flash back sceen from a movie*

I was co-running a bay with the trauma coordinator (nothing new), but due to staffing levels and a busy A&E they didn't get much time in the bay meaning it was me all the way.  The other bays had a RGN and a CSW in them while my bay had the trauma nurse and me... Or in reality it was me and the wandering dementia patient.  This mean't that when it came to things like giving pressure care the other bays had 2 people while I had just me.  I did try asking the dementia patient acting as my shadow if they wanted to help but all I got was the reply 'Don't be so stupid. I don't know why i like you so much... You're a bloody idiot.' (I do love dementia patients. LoL).  When I asked the trauma nurse if they could help me all I got was 'Im busy, go and ask one of the other CSWs to help you.'  Busy...? Busy...? You have been sat on your arse for the last 1/2hr with a cuppa laughing with one of the RGNs!  Needless to say I smiled and walked off whistling 'Fuck You' by Damage Plan (I'm such a nice person... honestly!).  By 19.00 I managed to park my cute tush next to one of the RGNs to start my writing.  This lasted all of 5min before one of the CSWs came and asked the RGN if they were free to help them provide pressure care to a few patients... 'Im doing my writing Shane will help you.'  I looked at the RGN thinking it was a joke only to realise they had not even looked up from their notes.  With a look that obviously said 'Are you taking the piss!' I closed the 1st set of notes, put my arm round the CSWs shoulder and walked off saying 'Come on my wee Irish tinker, I will help you... MY WRITING CAN WAIT I GUESS.'.  In the end I ended up spending the remaining hour helping the patients get settled for the night.  Once handover had finished the RGN who was 'working' with turned to me and said 'Come on, time to go... Oh, how much have you got left? Ah right... Well I can't really stay im afraid...'  And with that walked off the ward leaving me looking round at the night staff... 'Anyone for a cuppa then...?' 

It sometimes feels like my role as a trainee AP is abused.  Yes I can do all the careplans, yes I can do all the hands on care... But even someone as awesome as me can't do the work of 2 people at the same time. Sorry.  I guess that whatever don't kill ya will only make ya stronger.

And on that note I will say TTFN peeps :)

Respect...

*This is a blog I did about 3 weeks ago but due to laptop being broken never got it posted.*

It’s been a busy week here in the world of Shaniepoo

'Is there no standard anymore?
What it takes, who I am, where I've been
Belong
You can't be something you're not
Be yourself, by yourself'
                                              

                                                                                         (Pantera, 1992)

On Monday I got the opportunity to shadow one of our AP’s in A&E as part of my course.  I remember working with her when she was a CSW and seeing her now 4-5 years after qualifying was quite inspiring.  Her general knowledge of nursing is huge!  And her ability to adapt to the constant changes in A&E was something to be proud of.  My only criticism… The green uniform… God it’s awful! 
After being inspired by working with the A&E AP we talked about leadership at Uni and what attributes are needed to be a leader and who inspires you as a leader, quite a coinkidink.  We discussed the difference between a 'leader' and a 'manager'... Two very different roles, and if I'm honest i don't think i know anyone with a combination of the two.  We discussed what attributes were needed to be a leader and someone came out with the most random attribute of all... 'Fear'.  They tried to explain why it was an inspiring attribute 'If you are feared by people then you have their respect and they are inspired by you to do better or they might lose your job.'  I tried to re-word what he said by asking if they meant 'perfessional respect' not 'fear'?  'No, I mean fear.  If your scared you might lose your job of you do something wrong and the boss will come down on you like a tone of bricks then it inspires you to do better.  Same as bullying, if your bullied you start to do better so you won't get bullied anymore...'.  This broke down into a 2 sided argument that ended with a comment from me - 'So are you inspired by murderers? After all, you fear that they might kill you?  What about Hitler?  He put the fear of God into people and killed loads of people...'.  This didn't go down well.  If anyone does know the answer please send it to me on a self addressed postcard, top 5 answers will win a prize :)  I'd like to think I'm a leader and that people i work with look to me for guidance and support (i know everyone worships me already but this is about work).

On the work front i was taken to one side following something I'd done the week before... I put in a critical incident report about a pressure sore/wound i came across.  There was no documentation about where it came from (it just appeared from no where) and incorrect documentation about another persons wound.  I asked for advice from the nurse in charge and the nurse i was working with and both agreed that i should put a critical incident report in.  As it turns out i seam to have opened a can of worm.  I was taken to one side and told that in future I should consult the Sister on shift and not just go ahead and put in a clinical incident report.  As it turned out there was a wound care plan in place that I missed... It also turns out that the wound care plan as documented as being on the wrong location (left side and not right side).  I was told that I should still consult the Sister on shift.  I came away from work that day thinking that even though I'd
done the right thing I was being told off... a strange way of saying 'well done for bringing up failures within the workplace'.  This isn't the 1st and I'm sure it won't be the last can of worms I open ;)

Till next time peeps... :)

'Jump in the fire' - Here we go!

Well here I am... 33, bald and looking awesome! (This will become a repeating theme, you have been warned).  I’ve wanted to do a blog for ages but never got round to doing it or known what to say.  This blog has come around after a twit chat with WeNurse about nursing blogs that got me thinking, and after reading a few of the blogs that was linked I decided what the hell.

I want this blog to be about my last 6 months of my uni course and my progression through nursing... but real life will find its way on here and I’m sure there will be talks of judo, gaming and many other non-nursing things.  My aim is to do 1 nursing blog a week for the duration of the year.  Each entry I want to have a title that comes from a song or line from a book, kind of makes things a bit more fun - 'Jump in the fire' for example is a Metallica song.

Before I start it would be good to tell you about myself so that you know what you’re letting yourself into by reading my blogs and also so that some things you read will make a bit more sense-

Me

My nickname is Shaniepoo, This came about when I was 18(ish) when friends started calling me a 'cutiepoos' as it got on my nerves - 'Men are not cute! Only babes and girls are cute, not men!!!'.  This then moved on to become 'Shaniepoo' or just 'Poo'.  I’m a very self-obsessed person (or so my friends say, but what would they know) and love to tell people (and myself) how awesome I am and that everyone should bow down to my glory.  Some friends have even gone to the point of saying I’m a little narcissistic but it is all just a bit of fun on my behalf... people would be upset if I didn’t act in this way.  lol.  I can be very loud, opinionated and love to be the ctr of attention!  I love confrontation and a good argument... I mean debate... but if I’m wrong then I will hold my hands up and admit it (sometimes. lol).  After asking a few friends to describe me they came up with the following comments - 'Angry cue ball', ‘Enigma’ and 'God of awesome with rhythm in his thong clad loins'.  lol.  Some of my friends say I’m very angry, my best friend for one thinks I’m a 'very angry person', but that’s only because he knows that calling me angry winds me up and the more he does it... the angrier I will get.  I’m a bit like Bruce Banner - If you push me to far I will snap and get angry... And you won’t like me when I’m angry.  But if there is one thing that nursing has taught me it is to take a deep breath and count to 10.  People have an expectation of me - They expect me to be unpredictable, make them laugh (at my own expense normally), come out with comments of self-gratification (I am awesome so everyone needs reminding now and then), put my foot in my mouth, and be a general all round fun person to be around.  I’m a huge geek and love my old cartoons and toys - Heman, Thundercats, Transformers...! 

Work 

I worked as a chef for about 6 years in a pub and community ctr.  Had a great time and worked with some great (and not so great) people.  This helped me find my love for heavy metal music and increase my vulgar display of power (another song line - Pantera).  I moved on from there to become a clinical support worker at my local Trust hospital working on the surgical nursing bank.  Here is where I fell in love with nursing... but they still won’t let me wear the nurses dress uniform :(  I worked on a colorectal and urology ward for around 5 years before I managed to get on my trainee assistant practitioner course with my Trust.  From here I was moved wards (turns out that I caused to much trouble by pointing out the problems that needed fixing to the matron and head of the surgical department) and now work on orthopaedic trauma.  I qualify in 6 months and then I will be a fully blown assistant practitioner :)

Hobbies 

My main hobby if Judo.  I’m a 2nd Dan coach at Lancaster University and love to teach!  I got into this through my mum and dad who ran the local Judo club in Lancaster for over 20 years.  I don’t compete any more due to injury and the fact that I can't get enough training in due to real life things like work.  My other main hobby is gaming - Bloodbowl.  Yes, I play will little toy men.  I’m well known in the gaming seen for my ability to be crap at the game and to dance for people in a thong (it's a long story).  The last of these has become my legacy.

Right, I think I’ve gone on enough for now and my coffee cup is now dry.  I hope that (if) anyone reads my blog they find it fun and enlightening.  And with that I end my 1st blog.  That wasn’t so bad now was it?

Love you and leave you peeps.

Shaniepoo