Was he pushed or did he jump.......

I'm back........from my imposed sabbatical as a blogger, and I've got news!

As any regular reader will know I can be quite a grumpy sod but all in all I love being a nurse-boy. I do however have major issues with how the health system in this fair isle of ours is run and the stupid situations we clinical peeps have to put up with day in day out. So a few months ago I started looking around for something new...........

And............

I left ward nursing and all the hospital bollocks for a job as a clinical specialist/advisor/rep for a rather large, nice, progressive company. Thus, you may now understand my enforced absence from the Internet is general.......(Sorry Dr T, i should have told ya!)

My day now consists of trotting around in my car, speaking to nurses, dr's and anyone else who will listen. Educating about medical conditions, nutrition, co-morbidities and what I can do to help. I teach public health nurses best practice and how to get the best outcomes for patients, reassuring people with toes hanging off, that we'll do our best, and looking super freaking sexy in an array of suits.

Did I also mention I've had a pretty decent increase in pay, an expense account and a company car! All for kinda just being a nurse.

What a difference a capitalist sell out can make!

All in all, I'm pretty damn happy I made the move. I get to see some mad shit......burns, cardio, plastics, GI, Colo-rectal you name it. I'm seeing the best and the worst. I'm learning stuff each and every day ( a cardio-thoraic consultant taught me how to read ECG's the other day) and finally feel like the 4 years I spent in college getting a degree is paying off, and getting quite a lot of respect for the knowledge and advice I'm giving. I'm allowed to be pretty autonomous in how I do things, and am trusted to get on with my job........now read back and see the sort of things I used to write on here...........big change methinks.

If nothing else, this gives me another string to my bow, and maybe I'll go back to hospital work in a few years, armed with a bit more knowledge aboout how the bigger badder world can and does operate. But maybe like hundreds of other RGN's, I won't......and thats the shame of it all really. The health service in both Ireland and the UK is hemorrhaging nurses quicker than an arterial bleed on a stab victim.......and what do they do to stop this.........sweet fuck all other than do their best to piss us all off even more!

Don't worry, I'll still post here, tell anyone who wants to listen about the crazy stuff I've been seeing and stuff, but as a final note.......and just in case anyone form the god old Dept of Health down in Hawkins House is reading, take this as a learning point. I've worked hard and well for you guys for a while now. I was pretty decent at my job, and gave you more loyalty and time than you deserved. But I did it for any of the patients that I was looking after. But you fucked it up, you pissed me off so much that I felt I couldn't work or give you anymore. SORT IT OUT lads, and maybe you'll eventually get the good nurses, Docs, physios, OT's etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc back again, and give people the health service that they deserve!

Laters

Ain't No Angel