A Student Nurse

 

I got into work today to find the hospice short staffed. 

A support worker and staff nurse kindly transferred from our satellite unit to help and I allocated them to half of the patients with one of my own support workers  when I took the other half helped by a student nurse.

The student nurse was nervous, very young but bright 

She impressed me from the start when I asked her what was our priorities as soon as we hit the floor

Check on my patients she said with a smile.

It was a pleasure working alongside a young woman so open to learning

She shadowed me when I updated tearful families on changes of their relatives care and picked up on my use of language and humour when relating to another complicated patient.

On our break she asked me what my experience was in nursing and

When she heard I was originally a psychiatric nurse she nodded and laughed 

“ I thought you were something like that” 

By the end of the shift , she had planned my handover to another trained nurse and had agreed to implement it and I was leaving I overheard her explaining to some relatives an excellent précis of change of care plans with confidence and thought

And I thought how nice it was to have junior nurses of such promise on the shop floor 

When I was a charge nurse, she was the kind of nurse I used to headhunt for my spinal injury ward.

Winter

 It’s cold this morning

And I didn’t want to get up 

Dorothy didn’t either and cuddled up under the duvet, licking her lips

We listened to the wind for a while

Daring each other to move

I’m only doing a half shift at work so will finish at 1.30

I will be strict with everyone and will leave on time.

I have more study work to do for Monday 

This time an academic poster

I’m counting down the minutes I have to leave at 6.45 in order to get to work on time

Eggs on toast with coffee

My daily antibiotic has made me nauseous this morning

Feels like winter

Devipravaha

I’ve finished my essay.

I got to the satellite library just after nine and left it at 2pm

I left it because it got too noisy, travelling 12 miles west to my usual ( and very quiet ) Uni library along the coast.

Using a well heeled library in a rough part of north wales has been an eye opener for sure.

Apart from being noisy, it was a lesson in kids who probably need mountains of support and from what I could experience from my computer chair , generally got it. 

I listened from time to time, to the 1:1 guidance given to one girl with serious anxiety needs with pure admiration for the teacher/ aide, then watched as two library staff diffused the anger of a teenage boy who stormed about the facility swearing he was going to head butt some kid downstairs who had dissed him.

The activity was all too much for me.

And by 2 pm I asked the main librarian if he could find a quiet corner

He shrugged and said no he was sorry

“ I’ve never been in such a noisy library” I told him, not unkindly 

But he shrugged

“ What do you expect this is a FE college?” he said

and his resignation felt raw.

I left feeling somewhat stressed which made me feel awkward 

Give me a medical emergency or distraught relatives , life is a breeze 

Give me an unfinished essay on evidence based practice 

And I’m a mess.

And so , I drove to the quiet library and in three hours finished the essay and listed the references.

I had a massive headache on the way home 

Which was calmed by an ice cold Diet Coke and the above song gently playing on the car CD

Devipravaha is incredibly soothing to the non academic soul.

Where Does The Time Go

 This morning I took TCH * to the dentist . We have a nice barter going on. 

Dog sitting for car transport 

It’s a good deal. 

This afternoon I’ve written a quarter of my essay and mybib -ed the references. The library staff at the Rhyl satellite campus were far too loud but didn’t take exception at me asking them to keep it down

I think they thought I was a visiting member of staff.

I had a cheese toastie for lunch and sat with a group of 16 year olds who were merrily slapping each other in the faces and filming it for a laugh.

I bought some sushi for tea and fresh flowers from a struggling florist, a shop I also bought a single white cyclamen from, which I intend to give the eldest Randa girl who is 18 on Saturday along side a trendy girl clothing website voucher 

It only feels like yesterday we were disembowelling pumpkins, blowing duck eggs and back combing William until he looked like Tina Turner.

Speaking of birthdays, it’s my nephew Leo’s today

We are off the London in the New Year to see a show, that’s his gift but I’ve sent him a dvd of Oppenheimer too…and sang him a recording of Happy Birthday , sent in messenger

He’s now in his early twenties….and was non plussed with the singing

* Trendy Carol’s Hubby

Oh no Giselle

 

Giselle at Venue Cymru was produced by the vague sounding  Classical Ballet and Opera House productions.

That should have warned us.

Perhaps 200 people at a venue built for 2500 was another clue

The third indication of a totally amateurish evening was the rather hefty ballerina in the back row of the Willis ( willies) 

Janet and I got an attack of the giggles a third through the way of the first act when no one seemed to be actually dancing

Once you’d had the ROH you don’t go back.

A third rate production at a second rate theatre

What a shame

I’ve turned into someone fairly objectionable (my  troll will be moist at that statement ) 

A ballet snob!!!!!

Memories of watching the willis entering the Royal Opera House stage overran everything

Two dozen Corps de Ballet , their heads covered in veils , moving as one animal across the stage like the ghosts they were meant to be

I remember, having tears in my eyes.

And the gasp from the audience as they floated in front of us.

“We’ve been spoilt by Covent Garden ”Janet said, summing up the evening 

But we did giggle like schoolgirls on the way home

When Tourette’s collide

With some of the bad humour still evident in my earlier blog comments 

This video should make everyone smile 

Accepting and wonderful warm 

Enjoy

 

LGBTQIA+ ( spinster)

The Community is growing 

From my well known LGBT we have added QIA+, terms Im just getting used to in the gentle backwater of  North Wales

So I’ve recruited Stonewall to help clarify any confusion ( with myself)

Queer

Queer is a term used by those wanting to reject specific labels of romantic orientation, sexual orientation and/or gender identity. It can also be a way of rejecting the perceived norms of the LGBT community (racism, sizeism, ableism etc). Although some LGBT people view the word as a slur, it was reclaimed in the late 80s by the queer community who have embraced it.

​Questioning

The process of exploring your own sexual orientation and/or gender identity.

Intersex

A term used to describe a person who may have the biological attributes of both sexes or whose biological attributes do not fit with societal assumptions about what constitutes male or female.

Intersex people may identify as male, female or non-binary.

Stonewall works with intersex groups to provide its partners and stakeholders information and evidence about areas of disadvantage experienced by intersex people but does not, after discussions with members of the intersex community, include intersex issues as part of its current remit at this stage.

Asexual

A person who does not experience sexual attraction. Some asexual people experience romantic attraction, while others do not. Asexual people who experience romantic attraction might also use terms such as gay, bi, lesbian, straight and queer in conjunction with asexual to describe the direction of their romantic attraction.

I hope that makes everything clear. ( I added spinster as my own term of reference.

Anyway, it’s Monday now and I’ve two nights out and lots of assignment to do with my other non work days. Grayson Perry ( an evening with) is on Saturday and Giselle on Tuesday

Plans

 

I wish I had seen the Royal De Luxe Giant puppets when they came to Liverpool back in 2018. 

It is unclear on their website, that there will be another “ performance” anywhere…..which is sad.

The puppets are on my list to see, wherever and whenever they appear again.

I also want to experience a sleeper train. The British one from London to Cornwall is all booked up on line so I will have to looked further afield  unless there’s an easier way to book. 

It’s another ongoing plan  

New York is booked and on this visit I want to include The Museum of the Moving Image, the free tour of The New York Public Library and The International Centre of Photography.

2024 is going to be some new, and different experiences 

I’ve decided that today on this bleak, rather wet Sunday .

I’m on nights tonight, and have been day dreaming the morning away , whether it be on my morning walk or coffee time at the kitchen table. 

Plans are afoot. 

The dogs are steaming gently in their reading chair

As I daydream of puppets striding through streets and the gentle lull of a train journey though the night