I was stopped by the police last night.
It was just after 1am and I was driving home after a 6 hour stint at Samaritans
Over the years, I must have been stopped half a dozen times.
I have never been questioned by a discourteous police officer. I've been breathalysed ,car checked warned that I took a roundabout a little too fast and given a close once over but everytime the officer involved has remained rather chipper and professional.
Historically, nurses and police officers have always had an affinity.
I think it's the fact they have to deal with the public under somewhat difficult circumstances that links them . Unfortunately, over the years I have had to engage the services of the police many times
One time it was a violent drug dealer who woke up fighting after being treated for an overdose that had to be restrained on intensive care! Another time a visitor who had offered to knock my teeth down my fat throat !in my own ward office was frog marched to the cells by a mountain of a Yorkshire cop who had been called out to the hospital three times on the same day!
When I was a psychiatric nurse and only a shy 24 year old staff nurse, I once had to help bring in a sectioned patient from the community. The patient had no insight into his condition and was violent and delusional, so it was the policement and women who had to go in first to secure the chap before I could get in to administer medication if required.
Before the operation began the copper in charge was discussing dos and don't in the back of the ambulance. He gave out jobs in his broad Yorkshire accent, after which I somewhat nervously asked him what he wanted me to do.
" sit in the ambulance and look pretty" he said
It was just after 1am and I was driving home after a 6 hour stint at Samaritans
Over the years, I must have been stopped half a dozen times.
I have never been questioned by a discourteous police officer. I've been breathalysed ,car checked warned that I took a roundabout a little too fast and given a close once over but everytime the officer involved has remained rather chipper and professional.
Historically, nurses and police officers have always had an affinity.
I think it's the fact they have to deal with the public under somewhat difficult circumstances that links them . Unfortunately, over the years I have had to engage the services of the police many times
One time it was a violent drug dealer who woke up fighting after being treated for an overdose that had to be restrained on intensive care! Another time a visitor who had offered to knock my teeth down my fat throat !in my own ward office was frog marched to the cells by a mountain of a Yorkshire cop who had been called out to the hospital three times on the same day!
When I was a psychiatric nurse and only a shy 24 year old staff nurse, I once had to help bring in a sectioned patient from the community. The patient had no insight into his condition and was violent and delusional, so it was the policement and women who had to go in first to secure the chap before I could get in to administer medication if required.
Before the operation began the copper in charge was discussing dos and don't in the back of the ambulance. He gave out jobs in his broad Yorkshire accent, after which I somewhat nervously asked him what he wanted me to do.
" sit in the ambulance and look pretty" he said
Spot on.
ReplyDeleteI am full of admiration for both nurses and police. They go to work and never know what the day/night will bring.
ReplyDeleteWere the "Road Wars" crew filming last night's "incident"? I look forward to seeing it on the telly.
ReplyDeleteSmiling at the policeman's advice to you.
ReplyDeleteAnd not surprised that the two professions have an affinity.
I do not wish to dampen the spirit in which you wrote your post - sitting pretty instead (made me smile), Fact is that, like in every profession, there are the incompetent, and there are bastards. Bastards who exploit their position of power and authority. I have experienced wonderful nurses, I have experienced at least one nurse from hell. As to police - oh dear. Sure, when they are professional they are fantastic, when their own anger and revulsion at a "customer's" demeanour takes over they are not so fantastic.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, main thing to take away from both nurses and police is this sound advice (passed on to me by both nurses and the police): Whatever accident may befall you, stay clear of the streets and A&E in the early hours of Saturday and Sunday morning.Apparently it's bloody mayhem out there and in there. Not that A&E are Angels. I once limped in with both arms broken and a foot out of order. In fact, if I'd been a cat dragged through a wet hedge backwards, I couldn't have presented a picture more worthy of pity (in my own mind's eye). What's the first thing the duty nurse says to me: "You can't come into a hospital bare foot." I wish the taxi driver who I apologized to for not being able to put any shoes on (you see, broken wrists and all that) had told me.
No matter what some of your readers like to believe, where there is hay there will be chaff, it not straw.
U
There are always rotton apples
DeleteThank you for pointing out the bleeding obvious
A sense of humour is paramount in both professions.
ReplyDeleteHere public transport ticket checkers have a bad reputation, yet I have always found them polite and courteous, and at times friendly. So has my much more sensitive to nuances partner. I have seen them harassed badly and one of them crack, but not too badly. I suppose you could lump all who work in public services who interact with the public together in having to deal with difficult people. I like Ursula's comment. PS I think you probably were a little bit pretty at 24.
ReplyDeleteI bet you looked pretty too.
ReplyDeleteso why were you stopped this morning?
ReplyDeleteGapparantly i drove alittle too quick out of the local town
Deletedid you get a ticket or a warning?
DeleteSit and look pretty, finally a job I am well qualified for!
ReplyDeletetru fax dat, penguin!
DeleteWhen I was in the hospital a few years ago, some patient went berserk in the middle of the night in the room beside mine, probably with drugs or the DTs or something. It sounded like a pitched battle. The next morning I made a point of walking past that room and someone was literally hosing it down inside. Yikes!
ReplyDeleteew!
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ReplyDeleteHaving gotten that call in the night that every mother/parent fears, flying to a tiny town in the middle of nowhere to be by my childs side with hope she would still be alive when I got there, spending weeks with her at that tiny hospital .. I can say nothing bad about nurses. I worked as a volunteer in a hospital when I was younger .. Laugh don't Cry was the unspoken motto .. I learned from the nurses ..and my Mom, who passed away a few months ago , worked in hospitals for years .. no one can say anything bad about a nurse to me. < this is not counting the old bags that yell at you for wetting the bed>
DeleteGenerally nurses, Police and firemen are a band of friends as, already stated, all are under pressure and deal with the sometimes difficult public. When I was a nurse I and 2 ambulancemen had to escort a very distressed patient to a secure unit, it was very upsetting and fraught for all. After we had completed this task which took far longer than we thought the 2 ambulancemen were in a rush to get us all back to the hospital - so they switched on the blue light and I had the ride of my life sitting wedged between the two; you could have only just fag paper between the ambulance and the traffic on the road. Ok, some would say that it was a bit naughty but I think it showed the human side of the professional men who had just had a really difficult time dealing with a potentially violent situation.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was in nursing school and doing my clinical in cardiology, there was a nurse who was absolutely a role model. So kind and so good and I swear to you- every time anyone in my family has had to go to the hospital for something very serious, he has been there. He moved to the ER at some point and he was there when my daughter was in a terrible car wreck, was there when my sister-in-law had an aortic aneurysm, was there when my mother died. It's like he is our angel. I think he's retired now (and when Mother died, he was only working one day a week) but occasionally I do see him in the grocery store. He is precious.
ReplyDeleteHow lucky that he was there in stressful times.
DeleteBut...that reminds me of the joke about the person that is always there at critical times being bad luck.
I noticed that you glided over the reason for which you were pulled over... I've had mixed encounters but have been happily un-involved in any police maneuvers for years. I must be getting old.
ReplyDeleteLove that last line. Sure you did, too.
ReplyDeleteI have the utmost respect for both professions, I couldn't do either of them.
ReplyDeleteI once got pulled for a missing tail light and sat in the police car giving my occupation at the time - working for charity supporting victims of crime, oh boy much hilarity and did I get some stick for that,needless to say I always check my lights every day now.
ReplyDeleteSee below x
Delete" sit in the ambulance and look pretty" he said That's so wrong but it's so funny too.
ReplyDeleteI thank you here and now for my first laugh of the day. :D Were you ticketed?
Of course not, i told him i was a samaritan....he has referred many people to us before...he shook my hand too
DeleteWhen I was a (very pretty) 11 year old riding my bike in Newark I was stopped by a Bobby in helmet who asked me whether I had noticed a road sign ( no idea what). I was totally puzzled and said "No". After a lecture I was allowed to continue on my innocent way. Obviously I was traumatised (didn't dare tell my parents) and am still suffering. Police brutality - it exists people!
ReplyDelete