Billy Shears

You could at my University, a lot of students did due to pregnancy or personal problems. It was called 'intermitting'. Speak with your tutor.

Tell the truth I thought everyone on here was a Nurse in some form or other. Naiive really. It does explain some of the posts being a bit, shall we say, over assertively ignorant? Hmm, some people must really have an agenda.

Sorry to hear this Cariad, hope you are OK. What you say about grief is so very true.

Thankyou thankyou thankyou :)

As an Activities Of Living assessment it is pertinent as there is allegedly a problem with their medication. This could be due to them not taking it appropriately (too often/omitting/wrong time etc). Probably be a good idea for the OP to refer to this tool in the body of their essay?

You probably also need to be looking at pharmacology and neurology and get some evidence together. Whatever you write about the episode make sure you have good quality up to date evidence to argue for and against whatever care was delivered. Then evaluate. Be critical. Your questions will be answered by your research. If you are asking whether or not the Glasgow Coma Scale is used for patients who present with neurological problems then that is something that you need to get evidence on and say why it was or was not done, and what you have found is good practice through your research. Jeez I'm glad I don't have to do these essays anymore! :) All the best with it.

All the best Cariad, will be thinking about your Nephew. Very difficult for you being so far away.

At the hospital I used to work in we had problems with patients & relatives filming, recording and taking photos on mobile phones.

Look up the mechanics of LVF

Assess, assess, assess. Look at your patient holistically, they have come in from the outside world because they are feeling ill. As a Nurse, what are you going to do to make them feel better? Don't get bogged down by the paperwork (OK it has to be done), get focused on your patient's condition. Good example: I had to float to our CDU/MAU recently, middle aged pt newly diagnosed IDDM, uncontrollable sugars. Insulin regime not helping so they were giving Actrapid prn. I went to give her regular meds, offered her a cup of water to take them with & she said she had some lemonade thanks which she usually took her tablets with. The lemonade had sugar in it. Pt had been there two or three days and really this could have been spotted earlier.

Although most of the cars are clockwork, they do have 12v cigarette lighters.

It maybe foolish but leaving a department dangerously understaffed is something some people cannot do (not having a dig there I don't always go in). We also get a ridiculous amount of paid holiday.

The end result of the paid sickness leave is that the well staff get brought in on their days off and holidays to cover. So the non-sick staff maintain the department staffing levels which leads to lower moral and long term sickness, even cessation. Great system.

Be careful your kids don't age out!

Sir George Alberti is visiting my department on Wednesday. I guess you all know where I work..... Chin up Smiler, stick together.

Cariad, I've offered two insights, they are not personal experiences or films. I haven't mentioned the US Healthcare system, I am not comparing. The OP wants some insights into Nationalised Healthcare.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/west_midlands/7954156.stm Birmingham Children's Hospital Birmingham is not a 'relative backwater', neither is Stafford for that matter. Nurses are leaving in droves from North Staffs Teaching Hospital A&E dept.

http://www.healthcarecommission.org.uk/_db/_documents/Investigation_into_Mid_Staffordshire_NHS_Foundation_Trust.pdf All over the news at the moment.

I don't believe the money goes back into the health service, it's just tax. God forbid if you breach the 4 hour wait in A&E, you will be left there on the trolley and beds will be given to patients who haven't breached. I've seen people stay 2 days in A&E. Moving really ill people because they are about to breach happens very often. Target driven, media led healthcare. My sister is an ER Nurse in the States and I am an A&E Nurse here in England. We swap stories. She is appalled at what I have to tell her, I am ashamed. No-one has mentioned the 'Internal Market', 'Private Finance Initiatives' or 'Arms Reach Services', or the private out of hours GP service that the NHS pays for. How does a Trust achieve Foundation status? It's not measured by standards of quality of care, it's based on targets and money. We need to learn from the Baby P case where the investigation reports state that one of the causal factors was the Social Services Department's reliance on quantitative not qualitative data. The NHS is a wonderful service but it needs to get back to its roots. At the moment there are and awful lot of people making an awful lot of money out of it.

Hurts me some!

What with the April VB this is all going horribly wrong...

I'd still have a work force that wants to work and be productive than one that needs to be "encouraged".

I'd prefer a workforce that works hard and cares about what they do. Much more important than where someone comes from whatever their occupation. This country, like the US, needs immigrants. The economy will recover, the ageing population will not go away.

It'a an old Ombudsman report. edit: Just re-read your post, I think you know that, sorry :)

Unfortunately a lot of people in the UK believe that it is their right to have an ambulance to hospital and then home again. I had a pt recently who was complaining about waiting when she had come into A&E "for a days investigations". She had called 999, asymptomatic, and expected an ambulance home.