Thursday, January 28, 2010

Product of your nation

"Please sir, please excuse me" begged Monsab the Arab.
"But you look so healthy and well, I can't excuse you. I would be doing you an injustice if I did" I replied.
"But sir, I..." Monsab paused briefly to think of a symptom "I've got a sore stomach. I don't feel well at all" explained Monsab. But I wasn't feeling generous. I was feeling vindictive. Besides, it was a gorgrous day outside and Monsab could do with some fresh air. "No more begging Monsab. I won't excuse you. Now go." Monsab just stood there unmoving "But please sir, I'll pay you. How much do you want?" Monsab pulled out his wallet.

If only the kids put this much effort into something positive, they could make something out of their lives.

"I'll give you three seconds to go, then it's a Friday night restriction." Monsab left the clinic, but not before telling me I was cruel and uncaring.

Patient 2
"Please sir, please excuse me. Go on sir, give me a break, just this once" pleaded Naif the Arab. "But you're not sick. Being tired isn't an illness. Besides, the fresh air will do you good." It took five minutes to remove Naif from the clinic.

I saw twenty more Arabs that day. All begging, bribing, calling mums and dads, but I stayed firm. I was a bastard. I made them all go skiing.

That's a typical ski day in the health center. But I must be fair, the Arabs aren't the only ones I'm cruel to. I make everyone go skiing.

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Sunday, January 24, 2010

mercenary nursing

I think I know why nurses never seem to do as well as the others. By 'others' I mean school teachers, firemen, and policemen.

Reason 1. It's a female dominated profession and women have traditionally been screwed over by men ever since time began. Even in today's modern western world, women genererally are paid less than men.

Reason 2. People who become nurses are generally very caring people. I've known quite a number of nurses who said they would never push for a pay rise because that would mean the hospital would go broke and the community would suffer if it was forced to close.

Simply put, nurses will never earn as much as their other public service coleagues.

So what am I going to do about it?

Well, I'm trying not work in a hospital. This is a shame as it's one of the most rewarding types of nursing, you know, directly helping those most in need. But other jobs outside the hospital, in the private sector, pay better. It's a shame, because working for the rich is really quite degrading at times. They don't ask, they demand. They don't say 'Thank-you' because they are paying you for a service and don't see why they should say Thank-you for something they've paid for.

I could say more, but I'm sounding too bitter. I do care, but maybe I care more for the poor and needy. Is that so wrong?

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Friday, January 15, 2010

The abuse continues

To the Health Center

'I am stunned at how negligent your medical care is. My son was seen three times and not once did you take him seriously'

The rest of the letter was just further complaining about how terrible we school nurses are, although one line did stand out:

'Am I to assume the reason you are a school nurse is because no genuine medical establishment would have you...'

I made a grab for the phone but my colleagues were too quick. 'No you don't, no rage writing' admonished Sheila 'You'll only make things worse.'

I didn't really see how things could be worse. None of my colleagues had at any stage seen the patient in question and the medical records backed us up. Either the child or the parent was blatantly lying. The most likely scenario is that the teenager had an accident while on holiday and they want the school's insurance to cover the costs.

"Fine. I won't call him. In fact I won't even bother with any kind of reply." Sheila was happy to write a reply. She's a natural diplomat. Her letter began with 'I'm sorry...' I left the room in disgust.

I'm not a politician and even if I were, sometimes some people need to be told the truth and told that their behavior is unacceptable.

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Thursday, January 14, 2010

Desperation setting in.

Three years and thousands of hours later, and no one wants to publish my book.
The book consists of 300 hundred pages of hilarious, shocking, and sometimes disturbing content from my experiences working in different medical settings in three different countries.

I guess no-one is interested in this topic, although it's a shame because similar books that have been published in the past have all been best-sellers. I have considered the possibility that publishers just print the words 'best-seller' on all their books just to push up sales.

What's even more frustrating is that the last publisher to turn me down said my work was 'well written' and 'very entertaining'. His reason for turning it down was that the company had never published a book of this genre before and with the current economic climate they weren't willing to take a risk with a new author in an untested area.

I phoned him up to ask if what he wrote were true. 'I don't make claims I don't mean' were the publishers words. I was rather heartened by those words. He then went on to advise me to contact bigger publishers as he felt sure someone would take on my work.

Hasn't happened yet. Still trying, but getting desperate.

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