Visiting
So, what's the most important part of a nurse's job then?
Is it:
a) Looking after the patients
OR
b) Listening out for the bell that lets them know that there are visitors outside the ward, and then walking down the corridor to press the button that will let the waiting visitors into the ward?
Did you guess a)? Yes, so did all the nurses.
Of course, nurses these days aren't busy, what with the NHS being so overstaffed and all (if you're reading this from overseas I am using a linguistic device known as irony here and we Brits know that nobody from Abroad understands it. Hey, now I'm on to two examples in one paragraph.)
So, after that little digression, whenever the nurses aren't busy, which isn't often, or ever really, do they think "Hey, I can hear a bell ringing in the distance! And it's been ringing for twenty minutes! I'd better answer it!"? - - er, no, they don't.
Because the bell rings so much that they habitually screen it out of their hearing.
I expect that the patients learn to do this too. Eventually. After a few weeks of wondering why they don't seem to get many visitors.
Is it:
a) Looking after the patients
OR
b) Listening out for the bell that lets them know that there are visitors outside the ward, and then walking down the corridor to press the button that will let the waiting visitors into the ward?
Did you guess a)? Yes, so did all the nurses.
Of course, nurses these days aren't busy, what with the NHS being so overstaffed and all (if you're reading this from overseas I am using a linguistic device known as irony here and we Brits know that nobody from Abroad understands it. Hey, now I'm on to two examples in one paragraph.)
So, after that little digression, whenever the nurses aren't busy, which isn't often, or ever really, do they think "Hey, I can hear a bell ringing in the distance! And it's been ringing for twenty minutes! I'd better answer it!"? - - er, no, they don't.
Because the bell rings so much that they habitually screen it out of their hearing.
I expect that the patients learn to do this too. Eventually. After a few weeks of wondering why they don't seem to get many visitors.
posted by Daphne at 7:32 pm
3 Comments:
I suggest accidentally dropping something that will leave the door slightly wedged open - it will make everyone's lives easier.
how frustrating. i remember getting locked out of wards going for a coffee break.. it was the cleaners who let me in eventually
Something similar happened to me. Last time I was at a hospital it was St Thomas' in London. Been out with 2 of my closest friends and she over-did it on booze (she thought her drink had been spiked) and we had to call an ambulance (we were in a casino, though personally I don't gamble). Ended up at St T's. I was smoking then. He and I went out and shared cigs. Horribly surreal evening. We finally left around 5am and went back to theirs. I was chairing a meeting I could not miss at 9am, so - still wearing my clothes from the day before - I forced myself off the sofa at about 7.30am and went in early. Felt horrific. Unfort that whole story is on the old protected post (there was too much info, too much inappropriate stuff, etc).
Whoops. I have a habit of digressing it seems. Suffice to say I agree with where you're coming from re: nurses and being overworked!
Post a Comment
<< Home